Ai-Ais Hotsprings to reopen its doors month-end
Good news for hikers is that Ai-Ais Hotsprings and Spa will reopen to coincide with the main hiking season in the Fish River Canyon. Ai-Ais is at the end of the arduous trail and this is where hikers find first relief from their 80-km ordeal.
The government resorts manager, Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) announced this week that Ai-Ais will be operational on 01 May 2021. The resort was closed after extensive flood damage in February when the lower Fish River jumped its banks.
According to Mufaro Nesongano, NWR’s spin doctor, the resorts manager expected rehabilitation to be completed during March but this has proven to be unrealistic. The target date has now been set for beginning of May.
“Namibia Wildlife Resorts is cognisant of the number of travellers that frequent the resort, especially those that undertake the Fish River Canyon hike. This is why our internal team has conducted minor renovations to some of the areas with the limited resources at our disposal. It is just unfortunate that the camping sites were badly affected and will thus remain closed once we open,” he added.
Furthermore, Dr Matthias Ngwangwama, NWR Managing Director, stated that, “we greatly appreciate the understanding of our guests who had their bookings moved to later periods. We, however, are working hard internally to have the areas that we can fix done before we welcome them from 1 May 2021. At the same time, we will continue with the internal processes to finalise the rest at a later period.”
The Ai-Ais Hotsprings resort is situated in the Karas Region about 224 km south of Keetmanshoop and about 110 km from Vioolsdrift, the border post with South Africa. Except for the last 60 km which is a gravel road in good condition, the road to Ai-Ais is tarred.
