Namibia Self Drive: Safari and Desert Adventure

Having arrived at the international airport, you collect your vehicle at the relevant car rental company kiosk and travel a short distance to Windhoek. Check into your guest house, enjoy the day at leisure or explore the city centre with its colonial-style buildings, street cafes and craft markets.

Dinner, Bed and Breakfast

Optional – Guided City Tour

In the morning you travel into the largest sand mass on earth, the Kalahari Desert. The bushman refer to it as the “Soul of the World”, an emotive description for this area!

With its deep red dunes and endless grass plains interspersed with acacia and shrubs, it is the only form of survival for a vast amount of specially adapted wildlife such as oryx, springbok and ostrich.

Enjoy the opportunity to experience the fauna and flora that has survived this desert environment for thousands of years on an optional guided nature drive in the late afternoon, ending the day with a sundowner drink on one of the dunes.

The following day, you will take part in a walk guided by a bushman, taking you over the dunes of the Kalahari.

Breakfast, Dinner + Free Walk guided by a bushman

This morning you travel via endless plains and along stunning mountain ranges into the Namib Desert.

Your lodge is situated near the gate to two of Namibia’s most celebrated attractions: Sossusvlei, with some of the highest dunes on Earth, and Sesriem Canyon. Both are visited the next day.

Before sunrise, you travel to the gate of the Namib Naukluft Park. The best time to experience the Sossusvlei area is at sunrise when the light paints the dunes and desert palette into deep red, apricot and purple–this part of the day is also the most forgiving, as you are not exposed to the hot afternoon sun when clambering one of the mighty dunes.

From Sossusvlei visit Dead Vlei, a surreal white clay pan surrounded by great dunes and dotted with age-old Camelthorn trees. Travelling back, visit the Sesriem Canyon, an 18 million-year-old gorge eroded into the conglomerate floor. After returning to your lodge, cool off in the sparkling pool or take a refreshing drink while overlooking the desert plains.

AM guided visit of the Dunes at sunrise and Sesriem Canyon.

Optional Activities:

• Sundowner Drives

• Ballooning

• Walking Trails – guided and unguided

Today you travel via the Namib Naukluft Park to Swakopmund, a tranquil coastal town situated between the Namib Desert and the Atlantic Ocean.

Visit the Welwitschia plains en route and the aptly named Moon landscape (permit required), two of the attractions during this scenic drive.

In Swakopmund, you will have the option of participating in some of the adventurous activities on offer. These could include scenic flights, dolphin cruises, quad biking, parasailing, dune boarding and parachuting.

Today you head further north, travelling along the skeleton coastline towards the Fisherman’s town of Hentisbay before turning east and heading back inland past the Brandberg, Namibia’s highest mountain (2.579m), into the Damaraland, one of the least populated and most geologically diverse areas in Africa. This harsh, rocky environment is home to the elusive desert elephant, the black rhino and free-roaming antelope species.

Staying close to Twyfelfontein allows you to easily visit Twyfelfontein, here you are accompanied by a local Damara guide on the excursion through Twyfelfontein, a UNESCO heritage site where Bushman communities engraved and painted over 2.500 pictures some 6.000 years ago! This excursion can be followed with a visit to the nearby Living Museum of the Damara.

You then proceed to your lodge where you can take part in an afternoon nature drive in search of the elusive desert elephants roaming this area.

Your destination today is the wildlife heaven of Namibia-the Etosha National Park.

On your way to this wildlife mecca you can stop at the Petrified Forest. The geological phenomenon found here depicts the creation and metamorphosis of wood into stone amongst some of the oldest landmasses on Earth.

Here you can also see the Welwitschia mirabilis plant–the oldest living desert plant on Earth.

Before checking into your lodge located on the border of the Etosha National Park, you can already enter the park for your first game viewing excursion.

Safari! You have the entire two days available for extensive game viewing experiences in one of Africa’s top wildlife reserves.

The Etosha National Park surrounds a parched salt desert known as the Etosha Pan and is home to 4 of the Big Five-elephant, lion, leopard and rhino.

The park’s water holes support a diversity of mammals and birds, including species such as black-faced impala, cheetah, and Namibia’s smallest antelope, the Damara dik-dik.

Shortly before sunset, you travel back to your lodge.

Optional Activities

• Guided Game Drives

• Sundowner Drives

• Sunrise Guided Walk

• Stargazing

• Boma Dinner Experience

In the morning you travel back south into the vicinity of Okahandja, where your accommodation is situated.

The remainder of the day is spent at leisure beside the sparkling pool or the viewing deck. Here you have the option of exploring the rich diversity of game species on a self-drive route on the farm (maps are provided) or simply enjoy a sundowner on the terrace overlooking the bush.

After a hearty breakfast, you travel back to Windhoek or the international airport, where you return your vehicle and your tour ends.