Day 1: Arrival in Windhoek
Meals: Dinner
Accommodations: Villa Vista Guesthouse
After landing at Windhoek’s International Hosea Kutako Airport, about 40 km outside of Windhoek, you will be welcomed by a ROW representative who will transfer you to the Villa Vista where you will stay overnight in their beautifully designed rooms. Take the rest of the afternoon to relax and settle into your charming accommodation. Dinner tonight is enjoyed at a local restaurant together with your private Naturalist guide/s who will run through the details of your safari with you.
Windhoek Capital City: Windhoek, Namibia’s capital nestles among rolling hills, bounded by the Eros Mountains in the east, the Auas Mountains to the south and the Khomas Hochland in the west. It is a meeting place between Africa and Europe, the modern and the old. In the capital’s main street, well-preserved German colonial buildings are in sharp contrast with modern architectural styles, while Herero women in their traditional Victorian dresses mingle with executives dressed in the latest fashions. Located centrally, Windhoek is the starting point of an adventures holiday for many visitors to the country and an ideal base from where to explore the rest of the country. The city’s restaurants offer a variety of meals, ranging from international and continental cuisine to German dishes such as Eisbein with Sauerkraut and African delicacies such as Mopane worms. Windhoek offers a wide choice of accommodation options, ranging from four-star hotels and homely pensions to backpackers establishments and campsites. In the rural areas beyond the city’s limits there are also a number of lodges and guest farms.
Day 2: Windhoek to AfriCat Foundation
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodations: Okonjima Bush Camp
After a leisurely breakfast your guide/s will collect you at the guesthouse and you set off on your journey, which today takes you through Okahandja to Okonjima, the home of the AfriCat Foundation. You have the option to stop off at the Okahandja Craft Market en-route if desired and arrive at Okonjima Plains Camp in time for lunch. Here you can enjoy the welcoming atmosphere, comfortable accommodation and fantastic activities; starting with a guided afternoon excursion.
Okahandja: Directly north of Windhoek lays Okahandja, a town of great significance to the Herero people because it was once the seat of Chief Sameul Maharero. Every year on 26 August referred to as Heroes’ Day thousands of Hereros converge in the town to pay homage at the graves of their great chiefs. Some of the women are dressed in traditional red and black, others in green and black, while the men wear full military regalia complete with medals. Visitors are welcome to view this rich and colourful ceremony. According to historian Dr Vedder, the name Okahandja comes from Herero and means ‘small widening’, the place where the rivers meet. The earliest records of the town date back to 1844 when the first two missionaries arrived there. The year 1894, however, is regarded as the birth of the town as Okahandja became a military base in this year and a fort was built. On 26 August, 1923, the famous Herero Chief Samuel Maharero was laid to rest in Okahandja at a funeral attended by approximately 2 000 people. Since then this day has been celebrated annually at Okahandja by the Herero people. The town is an important center for woodcarvers from the north. They practice their ancient skills at the wood and thatch Mbangura woodcarvers Market next to the main road, both at the entrance and at the exit of the town.
AfriCat Foundation: Okonjima is home to the AfriCat Foundation, a wildlife sanctuary founded in 1991 that is dedicated to creating conservation awareness, preserving habitat, promoting environmental educational research and supporting animal welfare. Their main focus is Africa’s big cats, especially injured or captured leopard and cheetah. AfriCat runs the largest cheetah and leopard rescue and release programme in the world. In the last 17 years over 1 000 of these predators have been rescued with over 85 % being released back into the wild. Close encounters with leopard and cheetah are an unforgettable highlight.
Okonjima Bush Camp: Totally renovated in 2015, the design honours the Okonjima cattle-farming history. In the early 1920’s, Okonjima became a cattle farm and was bought by Val (VJ) & Rose Hanssen in 1970. They were well-established Brahman breeders and continued to farm cattle until the need for solutions to increasing livestock losses became pertinent and post-independence interest in Namibia as a tourist destination, escalated. In 1993, the herds of Brahman and Jersey cattle were sold, changing the face of Okonjima as well as that of Carnivore Conservation, with the establishment of the AfriCat foundation!
Day 3: AfriCat Foundation to South Etosha National Park Boundary
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodations: Andersson’s Camp
This morning is spent on another exciting lodge activity before returning to Plains Camp for brunch. After freshening up you make your way to Anderssons Camp situated on the Ongava Reserve on the Southern Etosha National Park Boundary. Time allowing you head into Etosha National Park for a short game drive, exiting the park before sunset, alternatively simply relax and time this evening can be spent watching animals come down to the floodlit waterhole for your enjoyment.
Andersson’s Camp: Located just 4.5 km from Etosha National Park’s Andersson Gate, Andersson’s Camp takes its name from Charles Andersson, the Swedish explorer who first ‘discovered’ the Etosha Pan with Sir Francis Galton in 1851. Set against a backdrop of the low Ondundozonanandana Mountains, Andersson’s Camp is located within the private Ongava Game Reserve which borders onto Etosha National Park. The Ongava Game Reserve is typified by white calcrete soils, rocky outcrops and scrub-covered plains which support a rich variety of game such as giraffe, lion, rhino and various antelope species. The Camp overlooks a waterhole where guests can enjoy the interaction of wildlife coming and going throughout the day and night. This former farmstead has been tastefully rebuilt to modern-day standards. The design and construction of Andersson’s Camp was guided primarily by the principles of environmental sustainability – reduce, reuse, recycle. The old farmhouse now forms the main dining, bar and swimming pool area of Andersson’s Camp, with guest tents radiating outwards into the secluded Mopane woodlands typical of the region. Tents are constructed using a clever mix of calcrete stone cladding, canvas and wood, with double-door entrances and a small verandah that is an extension of the elevated wooden decks on which the tents are raised. The open-air en-suite bathrooms continue the unique design. Andersson’s Camp’s close proximity to Etosha National Park is ideal for game drive excursions into Etosha to take in the array of game found there.
Day 4: Etosha National Park
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodations: Andersson’s Camp
Today is available for a full day of exciting game viewing within the south western section of Etosha National Park. After discussion with your guide/s, you can either choose to go into the park in the morning and the afternoon and return to the camp for lunch and an early afternoon rest; or you can head out further across the Park to spend more time in the area around Halali – Either way, you will return to the comforts of Anderssons Camp by sunset.
Etosha National Park: Etosha National Park covers 22,270 km², of which approximately 5,000 km² is made up of saline depressions or ‘pans’. The largest of these pans, the Etosha Pan, can be classified as a saline desert in its own right. The Etosha Pan lies in the Owambo Basin, on the north-western edge of the Namibian Kalahari Desert. Until three million years ago it formed part of huge, shallow lake that was reduced to a complex of salt pans when the major river that fed it, the Kunene, changed course and began to flow to the Atlantic instead. If the lake existed today, it would be the third largest in the world. Etosha is the largest of the pans at 4,760 km² in extent. It is nowadays filled with water only when sufficient rain falls to the north in Angola to induce floods to flow southward along the Cuvelai drainage system. The Park consists of grassland, woodland and savannah. Game-viewing centers around the numerous springs and waterholes where several different species can often be seen at one time. The Park boasts some 114 mammal and over 340 bird species. Wildlife that one might see includes elephant, lion, giraffe, wildebeest, eland, kudu, gemsbok (Oryx), zebra, rhino, cheetah, leopard, hyena, honey badger, and warthog, as well as the endemic black faced impala.
The Himba: The Himba, Tjimba and other Herero people who inhabit Namibia’s remote north-western Kunene Region are loosely referred to as the Kaokovelders. Basically Herero in terms of origin, language and culture, they are semi-nomadic pastoralists who tend to tend from one watering place to another. They seldom leave their home areas and maintain, even in their own, on which other cultures have made little impression. For many centuries they have lived a relatively isolated existence and were not involved to any noteworthy extent in the long struggle for pasturelands between the Nama and the Herero
The largest group of Kaokovelders is the Himba, semi-nomads who live in scattered settlements throughout the Kunene Region. They are a tall, slender and statuesque people, characterized especially by their proud yet friendly bearing. The women especially are noted for their unusual sculptural beauty, enhanced by intricate hairstyles and traditional adornments. They rub their bodies with red ochre and fat, a treatment that protects their skins against the harsh desert climate. The homes of the Himba of Kaokoland are simple, cone-shaped structures of saplings, bound together with palm leaves and plastered with mud and dung. The men build the structures, while the women mix the clay and do the plastering. A fire burns in the headman’s hut day and night, to keep away insects and provide light and heating. A family may move from one home to another several times a year to seek grazing for their goats and cattle. Men, women and children wear body adornments made from iron and shell beads.
A Himba woman spends as much as three hours a day on her toilette. First she bathes, then she anoints herself with her own individually prepared mixture which not only protects her skin from the harsh desert sun, but also keeps insects away and prevents her body hair from falling out. She uses another mixture of butter fat, fresh herbs and black coals to rub on her hair, and ‘steams’ her clothes regularly over the permanent fire. Men, women and children adorn themselves with necklaces, bracelets, anklets and belts made from iron and shell beads. With their unusual and striking designs, these items have gained a commercial value and are being produced on a small scale for the urban market. Sculptural headrests in particular are sought-after items.
Day 5: Etosha National Park to //Huab Under Canvas
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodations: Huab Under Canvass
Today is a long day, but filled with many memorable experiences!
Today after breakfast you depart and head into the heart of Damaraland where you will spend the next three nights at your specially erected //Huab Under Canvas Camp. Damaraland is typified by displays of color, magnificent table topped mountains, rock formations and bizarre-looking vegetation. The present day landscape has been formed by the erosion of wind, water and geological forces which have created rolling hills, dunes, gravel plains and ancient river terraces. It is the variety and loneliness of the area as well as the scenic splendor which will reward and astound you, giving one an authentic understanding of the word ‘wilderness’.
En-route to your camp your guide/s will take you to visit a local Himba settlement – you may have to search for a while as the semi-nomadic Himba people sometimes move location with no notice. They are one of the last most traditional peoples of Namibia and have little time for conventional practices. You will learn about the customs and traditions of this very proud nation, and will be given insight into their beliefs, way of life and everyday routine. Your guide/s will prove invaluable to ensure an interactive encounter with these fascinating inhabitants of a harsh environment. You also have the opportunity to visit a local school which Ultimate Safaris supports (provided it falls during the week and not school holidays).
After a delectable picnic lunch at a suitably scenic location, you continue on to the Under Canvas Camp with the last stretch into the camp being on tracks which are well off the beaten path. You will arrive in the late afternoon after what would have been a long yet rewarding day – with time to enjoy fireside sundowners at your camp that will be your home for the next three nights.
The Himba: The Himba, Tjimba and other Herero people who inhabit Namibia’s remote north-western Kunene Region are loosely referred to as the Kaokovelders. Basically Herero in terms of origin, language and culture, they are semi-nomadic pastoralists who tend to tend from one watering place to another. They seldom leave their home areas and maintain, even in their own, on which other cultures have made little impression. For many centuries they have lived a relatively isolated existence and were not involved to any noteworthy extent in the long struggle for pasturelands between the Nama and the Herero. The largest group of Kaokovelders is the Himba, semi-nomads who live in scattered settlements throughout the Kunene Region. They are a tall, slender and statuesque people, characterized especially by their proud yet friendly bearing.
The women especially are noted for their unusual sculptural beauty, enhanced by intricate hairstyles and traditional adornments. They rub their bodies with red ochre and fat, a treatment that protects their skins against the harsh desert climate. The homes of the Himba of Kaokoland are simple, cone-shaped structures of saplings, bound together with palm leaves and plastered with mud and dung. The men build the structures, while the women mix the clay and do the plastering. A fire burns in the headman’s hut day and night, to keep away insects and provide light and heating. A family may move from one home to another several times a year to seek grazing for their goats and cattle. Men, women and children wear body adornments made from iron and shell beads. A Himba woman spends as much as three hours a day on her toilette. First she bathes, then she anoints herself with her own individually prepared mixture which not only protects her skin from the harsh desert sun, but also keeps insects away and prevents her body hair from falling out. She uses another mixture of butter fat, fresh herbs and black coals to rub on her hair, and ‘steams’ her clothes regularly over the permanent fire. Men, women and children adorn themselves with necklaces, bracelets, anklets and belts made from iron and shell beads. With their unusual and striking designs, these items have gained a commercial value and are being produced on a small scale for the urban market. Sculptural headrests in particular are sought-after items.
Under Canvas camps : are non-participatory and are serviced and equipped to ensure that guests can stay in great comfort while allowing them to relax and revel in the feeling of space and solitude that makes Namibia so special. Good food and wine are an important part of the overall experience, so our camp catering is of a suitably high standard – even in dry, desolate areas where this can be hard to maintain. Our camp chefs have their own unique specialties so delicious, wholesome meals and local delicacies are prepared for each meal using fresh local produce wherever possible. Guests are looked after by a caring, warm tribe of ‘safari magicians’ who love what they do and whose main ambition is to ensure that each moment spent Under Canvas is as perfect as possible. Days are filled with thrilling encounters and nights are spent entranced with exclusivity beyond most people’s wildest expectations.
//Huab Under Canvas is located in a core desert adapted black rhino area in the //Huab Conservancy in Damaraland, approximately 90 km north west of Khorixas, and it is nestled in a grove of Mopane trees on the banks of a tributary of the //Huab River. Protected from all the prevailing winds and sun, the semi-mobile camp is virtually invisible from anywhere around and it carries arguably the lowest environmental footprint of any camp in Namibia.
Our Under Canvas camps use large rectangular Meru tents (4m x 3m and 2.5 m high) with built in groundsheets and mosquito screens on all doors and windows. Each spacious tent is equipped with standard height camp beds, solar lighting, and storage for clothing and other belongings that need to be accessible. Each also has a bathroom which has its own flush toilet, bucket shower and washbasin. A small table, mirror, towels and toiletries as well as solar lighting are also provided in the bathroom, and chairs on the patio allow guests to relax and enjoy the surrounding view. Activities include tracking desert adapted rhino which is completely private and done in an area that has the highest tracking success rate in north western Namibia; exploring the upper and less crowded //Huab River in search of desert adapted elephants (if in the area); nature walks and scenic game drives; as well as the possibility of visiting some nearby prehistoric rock engravings.
Day 6-7: Damaraland
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodations: Huab Under Canvas Camp
For the next two days you explore this remarkable Damaraland area, enjoying the freedom to explore the fascinating landscapes with your private Ultimate Guide/s. There is plenty of opportunity to disembark your vehicle and explore the area. The Damaraland is a surprising refuge for desert adapted wildlife that may include elephants, giraffe, oryx, springbok and even some predators such as lion, though with any wildlife sightings in Namibia, its season depending and never guaranteed. The wildlife roams large tracks of unfenced desert landscapes and sightings can therefore be at times challenging, but part of the adventure of exploring this wild untouched gem of Namibia.
Your highlights include a 4×4 scenic excursion along the ephemeral rivers of the Damaraland to explore this remarkable region and to search for game, including the elusive desert adapted elephants as well as endangered black rhino if they are in the area. Your guide/s and experienced local tracker head out to track for highly endangered Black Rhinoceros, by identifying their tracks and tracking them from there. This is a truly remarkable experience and Damaraland is home to a variety of desert adapted wildlife and hidden desert treasures. You will return to the camp in the late afternoons with some time to relax in the shade of the Mopane trees. Later in the afternoon you head out again for a scenic nature drive or walk to explore this vast and astounding ecosystem.
Desert Adapted Elephant: In habitats with sufficient vegetation and water an adult elephant consumes as much as 300kg of roughage and 230 liters of water every day of its life. Consider what a herd of them would eat and drink in a week or a month or a year. Finding an African elephant in a desert? Well, yes and not only elephant, but other large mammals as well, such as black rhinoceros and giraffe. Their ranges extend from river catchments in northern Kaokoveld as far south as the northern Namib. Apart from the Kunene River, seven river courses northwards from the Ugab provide them with possible routes across the desert, right to the Skeleton Coast. The biggest are the Hoarusib, the Hoanib, the Huab and the Ugab Rivers. Desert adapted elephant in Kaokoland and the Namib walk further for water and fodder than any other elephant in Africa. The distances between waterholes and feeding grounds can be as great as 68km. The typical home range of a family herd is larger than 2,000km², or eight times as big as ranges in central Africa where rainfall is much higher. They walk and feed at night and rest during the day. To meet their nutritional and bulk requirements they browse on no fewer than 74 of the 103 plant species that grow in their range. Not a separate species or even a subspecies, they are an ecotype unique to Namibia in Africa south of the equator, behaviorally adapted to hyper-arid conditions. Elephant in Mali on the southwestern fringe of the Sahara Desert are the only others known to survive in similar conditions.
Desert Black Rhinoceros: Namibia is home to the larger of two subspecies of the black rhinoceros found in southern Africa. The only population that remains in the wild, unfenced and outside reserves occupies an arid range in the western Kaokoveld. Their preferred habitat is the mountainous escarpment, but they follow ephemeral rivers into the northern Namib as well, especially when conditions are favourable after rains. They are the only black rhinoceros in Africa that are internationally recognized as a “desert group”. Like desert-adapted elephant, they cover great distances. They walk and feed at night and rest during the day. To meet their nutritional and bulk requirements they browse on no fewer than 74 of the 103 plant species that grow in their range. One of the few animals to eat fibrous Welwitschia leaves; they even feed heavily on the milkbush (Euphorbia virosa) with its sharp spines and toxic latex, presumably because of the high water and fat content. They are physical defenses of dryland plants without apparent harm. Once widespread in the subcontinent, black rhinoceros are an endangered species. The smaller subspecies, Diceros bicornis minor, does not range into Namibia.
Day 8: Damaraland to Swakopmund
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodations: The Delight Swakopmund
After an early breakfast you head in a southerly direction past the Brandberg, Namibia’s tallest mountain standing at 2574m in height, onto the coastal town of Swakopmund. After checking in at the Delight in the late afternoon you may wish to explore the town by foot and meet up again in time for dinner which is taken at one of the local restaurants which specialize in fresh seafood.
Swakopmund: Swakopmund resembles a small, German coastal resort nestled between the desert and the sea. It boasts a charming combination of German colonial architecture blended with good hotels, shops, restaurants, museums, craft centres, galleries and cafés. Swakopmund had its beginnings as a landing station in 1892 when the German Reich erected the first building, a barracks for troops on the site. Settlers followed and attempts to create a harbour town by constructing a concrete Mole and then iron jetty failed. The advent of World War 1 halted developments and the town sank into decline until half a century later when infrastructures improved and an asphalt road opened between Windhoek and Swakopmund. This made reaching the previously isolated town quicker and easier and it prospered once again to become Namibia’s premier resort town. Although the sea is normally cold for swimming there are pleasant beaches and the cooler climate is refreshing after the time spent in the desert.
The Delight Swakopmund: Amongst the town’s captivating contrasts and old traditions, Gondwana’s Delight is a fresh breeze in the desert. Conveniently located within short walking distance of the ‘Mole’, this modern, uplifting and inviting hotel is the ideal base for one’s stay. Every effort is made to surprise and delight guests with thoughtful touches and locally inspired reasons to smile. Each en-suite room is designed with comfort in mind and is equipped with air-conditioning, tea/coffee station, fridge, TV, complimentary WiFi and safe
Day 9: Swakopmund
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodations: The Delight Swakopmund
After an early breakfast your guide/s will drive you along the scenic coastal road to Walvis Bay for a memorable Namibian Kayak adventure within the outer lagoon. After meeting your kayaking guide you are taken on a short scenic drive to Pelican Point, its lighthouse and windswept beauty, briefly stopping at the salt works to view the variety of birdlife on your way to the launch point.
The kayaking is an ideal way of seeing Cape fur seals, Heaviside and bottlenose dolphins, pelicans, flamingos and a wide variety of other sea birds. If you are lucky, there is also a chance of seeing whales, leatherback turtles and sunfish. During the course of the day the guide will stop and inform you about the environment and light refreshments will be served on the beach before heading back to Walvis Bay. You will then be collected and transferred back to Swakopmund, where the afternoon will be at leisure and give you more time to explore the town and its offerings before dinner.
Day 10: Swakopmund to Sossusvlei
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodations: Sossus Dune Lodge
The fascinating drive today takes you south-east through awesome and ever changing desert landscapes via the impressive Gaub and Kuiseb canyons to meet the dunes at the settlement of Solitaire. You then continue south to Sesriem where you enter the Namib Naukluft National Park and go on to stay at Sossus Dune Lodge, the only lodge that affords you prime location within the boundaries of the Namib Naukluft National Park. If there is still time today, your guide/s will take you to visit Sesriem Canyon and Elim Dune, a nearby geological attraction, or you can relax and soak in the scenic and tranquil surroundings at Sossus Dune Lodge.
NOTE: As an alternative to the drive from Swakopmund to Sossus Dune Lodge you may like to take a scenic light aircraft flight over the Dune Sea, abandoned mining camps, shipwrecks, Sandwich Harbour and salt pans. Allowing you a bird’s eye view (fog permitting) over Sossusvlei and along the Diamond Coast (optional extra & at additional cost), before you land at Sossusvlei Airstrip. Your guide will drive to meet up with you in Sossusvlei later in the day.
Sesriem Canyon: Sesriem Canyon has evolved through centuries of erosion by the Tsauchab River which has incised a narrow gorge about 1.5 km long and 30 meters deep into the surrounding conglomerates, exposing the varying layers of sedimentation deposited over millions of years. The shaded cool depths of the canyon allow pools of water to gather during the rainy season and remain for much of the year round. These pools were a vital source of water for early settlers who drew water for their livestock by knotting six (ses) lengths of rawhide thongs (riems) together, hence the canyon and surrounding area became known as Sesriem.
Sossus Dune Lodge: Sossus Dune Lodge is ideally located with dramatic views out over the surrounding desert landscapes; its unique location allows you early entry into the dunes at Sossusvlei an hour before sunrise and a late exit an hour after sunset. The Lodge has been constructed on stilts linked by wooden walkways, thus creating the least amount of impact on the fragile desert environment. Accommodation is in very comfortable en-suite wooden and canvas chalets that lead on to a private wooden veranda overlooking the expansive desert plains. There is a large main area consisting of a dining room, a swimming pool, and a pleasant bar. From the Lodge you can take an easy walk to explore the local area, or just relax on your balcony or by the pool.
Day 11: Sossusvlei
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodations: Sossus Dune Lodge
This morning you will rise early for a magical excursion with your guide/s in the Namib Naukluft National Park setting off from the lodge which is already inside the Park gates. As a result, you can be on your way at sunrise to capture the dunes whilst the light is soft and shadows accentuate their towering shapes and curves. This area boasts some of the highest free-standing sand dunes in the world. Your guide will give you an insight on the formation of the Namib Desert and its myriad of fascinating creatures and plants that have adapted to survive these harsh environs.
Once you have explored to your hearts content you can enjoy a relaxing picnic breakfast under the shade of a camel thorn tree. Return to Sossus Dune Lodge in the early afternoon for a late lunch, stopping off to view Sesriem Canyon en route if this wasn’t done the previous day. The rest of the afternoon is at your leisure (from experience, this is usually welcomed after an exhilarating morning in the dunes).
Sossusvlei: This most frequently visited section of the massive 50,000 km² Namib Naukluft National Park has become known as Sossusvlei, famous for its towering apricot coloured sand dunes which can be penetrated by following the Tsauchab River valley. Sossusvlei itself is actually a clay pan set amidst these star shaped dunes which stand up to 300 meters above the surrounding plains, ranking them among the tallest dunes on earth. The deathly white clay pan contrasts against the orange sands and forms the endpoint of the ephemeral Tsauchab River, within the interior of the Great Sand Sea. The river course rises south of the Naukluft Mountains in the Great Escarpment. It penetrates the sand sea for some 55 km before it finally peters out at Sossusvlei, about the same distance from the Atlantic Ocean. Until the encroaching dunes blocked its course around 60,000 years ago, the Tsauchab River once reached the sea; as ephemeral rivers still do in the northern half of the Namib.
Sand-locked pans to the west show where the river previously flowed to before dunes shifted its endpoint to where it currently gathers at Sossusvlei. Roughly once a decade rainfall over the catchment area is sufficient to bring the river down in flood and fill the pan. On such occasions the mirror images of dunes and camel thorn trees around the pan are reflected in the water. Sossusvlei is the biggest of four pans in the vicinity. Another, famous for its gnarled and ghostly camel thorn trees, is Deadvlei which can be reached on foot over 1 km of sand. Deadvlei’s striking camel thorn trees; dead for want of water, still stand erect as they once grew. They survived until about 900 years ago when the sand sea finally blocked the river from occasionally flooding the pan.
Day 12: Sossusvlei to Windhoek
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodations: Villa Vista
After breakfast you bid farewell to the Namib Desert, traversing the Great Escarpment and scenic Khomas Hochland highlands to make your way back to Windhoek. Upon your arrival in Windhoek your guide/s will transfer you to Villa Vista for the last night of your safari. This evening you will have your farewell dinner either at a local restaurant in town.
Day 13: Depart from Windhoek International Airport
Meals: Breakfast
Spend as much of the day as is available relaxing at the guest house or exploring town until it is time to be transferred to the Windhoek International Airport in time for your international flight home.
This ends your Namibian safari. We hope to see you again…bon voyage…!