Your Itinerary
Day 1 - Windhoek Namibia
Upon your arrival at Windhoek International Airport, you will be picked up by a driver who will transfer you to your Hotel in Windhoek where you will meet the rest of the group and check in to your room. We will have a welcome to Africa meet & greet dinner later that evening. You will also be handed over your vehicle and be given a quick once over sometime that day.
Short info about Windhoek :
Windhoek is the capital of Namibia, in the country`s central highlands. Surrounded by the stubble-covered Auas Mountains and the endless Khomas Hochland, Windhoek lies ina long valley fed by ancient hot springs in the central highlands of Namibia.
There are many useful words to describe Windhoek and, as your most likely point of arrival and departure ,all those words will sing like a rufous-tailed palm thrush at the break of dawn:small,clean,safe, convenient, modern,interesting,warm.More words exist but we`ll let you make them up after your visit
In Windhoek there are many interesting historical buildings,museums, galleries and craft shops.The city has several good restaurants and modern shops and services, making it excelent base camp which to launch our adventure.
If you are the museum-visiting type,then don`t miss the Owela Museum, Alte Feste Museum, the Geology Museum and the Transport Museum
Interesting historical buildings to tick off your list are the Clock Tower,Elephant Column , The War Memorial, Christus Kirche, Alte Feste and the Ink Palace ( Parliament )
Galleries Featuring Namibian art and craft include the Bushman Art Shop and Museum and the National Art Gallery of Namibia. There are also street markets where local artists sell their crafts, fabrics and art.
Other interesting feutures : National Botanical Garden, Meteorite Fountain, National Theatre of Nambia and the Warehouse Theatre.
Day 3 - Sossusvlei 0 Kms
After our early morning breakfast we will head to the Namib Naukluft Park gate at Sesriem in time when it opens at sunrise. After paying the entry fee ( which is just under $10US ) we will drive west to the beautiful Sossusvlei area where most of the morning will be spent on dune climbing, photography and a visit to the world famous Dead Pan!
Star Dunes rise up to 300m into the air and rank among the biggest in the world;the dune valleys are marked by vast clay pans where the Tsauchab River gave up its fight to reach the sea. More than 60,000 years ago, the encoaching dunes stopped the ephemeral river from reaching the sea with over 50kms to go
Besides the dunes and the pans of Sossusvlei and Sesriem Canyon, a sildeshow of activities and sights has developed around the region and there are plenty of game lodges that provide additional adapted activities. Plants and birds are the dominant life form in this desiccated realm and they support a tiny world of mamals, reptiles and insects that, in the absence of coastal fog,seldom wander far from the river-course and its pamns
This is a photographer`s haven especially in the morning light when the shadows magnify the sharp edges of the dunes, the red Namib sands shine and the area is just so beautiful. The dead pan is also one of the most beautiful places to visit, a short hike from one of the parking areas. For the adventurous and fit, climb one the biggest dune sin in the world, Big Daddy or aka Dune 45!
To protect the fragile wilderness, only day trips are allowed into Sossusvlei. You can drive the 60Kms road lined with enormous iron-oxide dunes, precious gemsbok and grarled acacia to within a few kms of the pans and dunes in a 4X4
If you don`t fancy the extra hike you can get to within a short walk from the pans in your vehicle and some judicious sand track manoeuvres ( **no kidding here ); or you can use the shuttle service for a small fee.
Back to our lodge, the afternoon is free to relax and explore the area or do one of the activities offered by the lodge on your own
Day 5 - Swakopmund 0 Kms
Rest day.
Today is a perfect opurtunity to explore the sea side town of Swakopmund whether it`s shopping or part taking in one of many activities the town has to offer
Surrounded by the ancient Namib desert and the inhospitable-but bounteous -Atlantic Ocean, the two towns are alive with activity and adventure
Swakopmund has many interesting German-influenced buildings from the early 1900s in a variety of styles: Kaiserliches Bezirksgericht- or State House; Woerman House and Damara Tower; the Alte Bahnhof - a fairtale railway station; the Kaserne; the neo-baroque Lutheran Church; and Haus Hohnezollern- purportedly a brothel in its hey day
The Swakopmund Museum has displays of archaeology, ethnology, flora , fauna, history and mining; the Marine Museum has displays of inshore reef marine life; coastal birds and a cross-section of the Benguela Current.
Swakopmund and Walvis Bay have alot on offer for the adventure-seeker: Quad-biking, sand-boarding, dune-boarding, horse-riding, mountain biking, skydiving, surfing, surf and offshore fishing, dolphin cruises and diving-altough the water temperature is below friendly. And Rossmund Golf Club is developing into one of the world`s best desert courses.
If you are interested book any of the activities listed above, make sure to contact us before departure as we have offices in Swakopmund and can easliy recommend and book an activity for you.
Swakopmund has an astonishing array of restaurants that serve mainly seafood, steak and many German staples.
Our dinner reservations will be at the
Tug Restaurant
Day 7 - Etosha National Park 325 kms
The beginning of our Game viewing also known as Safari`s in Etosha
A visit to Etosha National Park is one of the highlights of travelling Namibia. Etosha, which was declared a reserve by the German colonial administrartion back in 1907, covers an area of more than 22 000 sq kms. In its centre lies a vast saltpan surrounded by grass and thorn savanah, Mopani enourmous lake, fed by the Kunene River. However the lake slowly dried up because overtime, the river changed its course.
Be it a lion or an elephant, a giraffe or zebra, almost all African species ( except for the Cape Buffalo ) are presentted in this huge game reserve, which is approximately the size of Wales UK.
There is an estimated number of 250 lions in the park, 300 rhinos, 2500 giraffes, 6000 zebras and more than 2000 elephants. The dainty springbok are especially numerous; at least 20000 of them roam the reserve, often they can be observed in enormous herds of several hundred animals
We have 2 full days and 3 nights are set aside to spend on game drives and game viewing at waterholes in the game reserve. View numerous species of animals drinking at the same waterhole, not often seen in other African parks.
We will check in to our lodge for the evening..
Day 12 - Botswana 140 Kms
Today after breakfast, we will drive 130 km to Katima Mulilo where we will be dropping off all our vehicles and we willl be transfered over the border to Botswana where we will be staying the next two nights in Chobe National Park.
Botswana game reserves account for the one fifth of the country that is an area the size of Iceland. Chobe National Park is over 10,000 sq kms yet it boasts one of the largest concentrations of plains wild life in Africa. It features the full spectrum of African wildlife and scenery with diverse habitats including Riparian forests along Chobe River, the lush Linyanti wetlands and Savuti with it's mix of marshland and open woodland plains.
During our stay in Chobe National Park, you will get to experience both land and river safaris where you will get to see Elephants, Buffalo, Lion, Leopard, Cheetah, Hyena, Wild Dogs, Giraffe, Zebra, Kudu and so on down the high chart to the rare water friendly Red Leche and Puku Antelopes.
Another highlight of our location is where you will have the opportunity of visting the unique "Four Corners of Africa". A quadripoint is a point that touches the border of four district territories also know as the Four Corners of Africa. These four countries meet at the eastern end of the Caprivi strip Botswana, Namiba, Zambia and Zimbabwe. There are more than 150 tri points in the world but only 1 International quadripoint.
Chobe is near Victoria Falls making the two destinations ideal sight-seeing safari bed fellows on a circut that could include many of the other amazing destinations in Southern Africa.
Day 14 - Victoria Falls, Zambia 75 Kms
Today we will be transfering to our final destination in Victoria Falls, Livingstone Zambia.
After crossing the border into Zambia, we will check into our hotel which is located at the Falls entrance.
A gazillion tonnes of water thundering over a sheer cliff drowns all other sounds and the swirling mist hides all sign of human activity. Beyond your rain forest santuary, people are hurling themselves off bridges, across gorges, into walls of raging water and out of aircraft. Victoria Falls is a paradox of tranquile beauty and exciting adventure.
Scenic flights over the Falls, dubbed the "Flight of Angels" after Livingstone's famous words, offer a staggering perspective of this mile wide phenomenon.
Some of the highlights of this area, we highly recommend are flights over Victoria Falls either by helicopter or ultralight, river rafting in the Zambezi River, the Devil's Pool or the world famous Bungee Jumping off the bridge that lies between Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Our final farewell dinner will be at our hotel.
