{"id":9848,"date":"2026-05-24T06:00:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T06:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mat-travel.com\/?page_id=9848"},"modified":"2026-05-24T06:00:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T06:00:52","slug":"goas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mat-travel.com\/de\/namibia\/etosha\/waterholes\/goas\/","title":{"rendered":"Goas Waterhole: Where Etosha&#8217;s Largest Herds Gather"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-container uagb-block-eb41731c alignfull uagb-is-root-container\"><div class=\"uagb-container-inner-blocks-wrap\">\n<p>There are waterholes in Etosha where the wildlife arrives in ones and twos, and there are waterholes where it arrives in hundreds. Goas, in peak dry season, belongs in the second category. On a productive August morning, the waterhole and its surrounding approach area can hold hundreds of animals simultaneously: zebra herds of fifty and sixty individuals, mixed with wildebeest, oryx, giraffe, and the inevitable elephant that push through the crowd to take precedence at the water. The sound alone, the collective noise of several hundred large mammals drinking and moving, is something you feel as much as hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Goas Produces Large Aggregations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Goas is positioned in the central section of Etosha where the wildlife catchment area is large and the surrounding habitat supports high herbivore density. The waterhole&#8217;s proximity to the park&#8217;s most productive grassland areas means that large herds converging on a single water point is a regular dry-season phenomenon rather than an exceptional event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The waterhole itself is one of the larger in the central section, capable of accommodating many animals at its margins simultaneously. Smaller waterholes create bottlenecks that limit the number of animals that can drink at once; Goas is spacious enough that multiple species use different sections of the water simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Art<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mixed herbivore herds<\/strong> are the defining feature. Zebra, blue wildebeest, springbok, and oryx in large numbers throughout the dry season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Elephant<\/strong> are consistent visitors, often arriving in family groups of fifteen to twenty individuals. Their arrival displaces smaller species from the waterhole margins temporarily; the dynamics of elephant dominance at a shared waterhole is a specific and fascinating spectacle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Giraffe<\/strong> use Goas regularly. Multiple individuals drinking simultaneously produces extraordinary photography opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>L\u00f6we<\/strong> are present in the area and occasional waterhole visitors, though Rietfontein is more reliably productive for predator viewing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Best Time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Mid-morning (08:00 to 10:00) in the dry season produces the largest aggregations as herds that have been feeding through the night converge on water before seeking shade at midday. The late afternoon (16:00 to 18:00) produces the second activity peak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The approach to Goas from the circuit road allows observation from a distance before reaching the vehicle pulloff, which is worth doing: the sight of a large herd approaching the waterhole on foot is compelling from any distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For circuit planning from Halali or Okaukuejo, see the <a href=\"https:\/\/mat-travel.com\/de\/namibia\/etosha\/waterholes\/circuit-guide\/\">waterhole circuit guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are waterholes in Etosha where the wildlife arrives in ones and twos, and there are waterholes where it arrives in hundreds. Goas, in peak dry season, belongs in the second category. On a productive August morning, the waterhole and its surrounding approach area can hold hundreds of animals simultaneously: zebra herds of fifty and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":9833,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"slim_seo":{"title":"Goas Waterhole","description":"In peak dry season, Goas attracts hundreds of animals simultaneously, elephant, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, and oryx drinking together in the most spectacular waterhole aggregations in Etosha."},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9848","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"trip-thumb-size":false,"destination-thumb-size":false,"destination-thumb-trip-size":false,"activities-thumb-size":false,"trip-single-size":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"trp-custom-language-flag":false,"wte-embed-list-image":false,"wte-embed-grid-image":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"MatAdmin","author_link":"https:\/\/mat-travel.com\/de\/author\/getlostinnamibiawithus\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"There are waterholes in Etosha where the wildlife arrives in ones and twos, and there are waterholes where it arrives in hundreds. Goas, in peak dry season, belongs in the second category. On a productive August morning, the waterhole and its surrounding approach area can hold hundreds of animals simultaneously: zebra herds of fifty and&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mat-travel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mat-travel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mat-travel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mat-travel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mat-travel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mat-travel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9849,"href":"https:\/\/mat-travel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9848\/revisions\/9849"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mat-travel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mat-travel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}