Day 1 - Flight to Namibia
Begin your Namib & Kalahari Desert Adventure with a scheduled overnight flight from the UK to Namibia.
Includes dinner on the flight.
Day 2 - Windhoek
From Windhoek Airport it is a 45-minute transfer to your guest house, well situated in a leafy suburb of the city and offering great views of the surrounding hills. Your afternoon is free to relax after your flight or to explore the city centre before enjoying dinner at one of Windhoek's many great restaurants.
Includes breakfast.
Day 3 - Kalahari Desert
Your safari guide meets you for an early start before driving in a southeasterly direction into the Kalahari Desert. Despite what is said, the Kalahari isn't a desert at all. In fact it's a vast sand sheet, a fossil desert, and this area of the Kalahari is made up of linear red dunes covered in bushes, trees and grasses. You'll pass through the remote Namibia outposts of Dordabis and Uhlenhorst to reach your destination: the lovely Bagatelle Kalahari Game Ranch. There is time to study the unique dune topography found here and see the diverse bird and animal life of this area on a late afternoon drive - keep a look out for a band of foraging meerkats!
Windhoek to Kalahari: approx. 5 hours (280 km)
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 4 - Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
Drive deeper into the Kalahari today before crossing the Mata Mata border from Namibia into South Africa and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Spend the night in a comfortable tented camp near the Mata Mata border from where you get your first introduction to game drives. Your guide takes you out during the cool of the late afternoon to seek out wildlife in the surrounding dune valleys.
Kalahari to Kgalagadi: approx. 6 hours (345 km)
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Days 5 to 7 - Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
Break camp and head out on an early game drive to make most of the cool morning when most animals are still active. The Kgalagadi consists of about 38,000km2 of the Kalahari and was previously split between South Africa's Kalahari Gemsbok National Park and Botswana's Gemsbok National Park. Now they have combined into the single Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.
The park gets few visitors as it is away from most major routes - making it the ideal wilderness to explore for serious safari adventurers. This is one of Africa's best safari parks for spotting cheetah, which thrive by hunting in the fossil river valleys and the surrounding Kalahari dunes. With an abundance of all types of flora and fauna, you're also likely to see high numbers of gemsbok, wildebeest, red hartebeest, springbok and even meerkats. As well as cheetah, there is the chance to spot the Kalahari's black-maned lions and there is even the occasional leopard sighting within the park. Spend the next three nights camping between two of the Kgalagadi's well situated campsites.
Game drives.
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 8 - Quiver Tree Forest
After a final game drive you leave Kgalagadi behind and in a long drive head back into Namibia to your next campsite by a forest of unearthly quiver trees. This prehistoric plant is not a tree at all but a giant aloe, reaching skyward with graphically forked branches. As their trunks peel intricate geometrical patterns are left on the bark making them interesting photographic subjects. There is also time to visit the nearby Giant's Playground where gigantic eroded dolerite rocks balance precariously on top of each other in fascinating tower formations.
Kgalagadi to Quiver Tree Forest: approx. 7 hours (350 km)
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 9 & 10 - Fish River Canyon
It's a short drive to the town of Keetmanshoop where you pause to stock up with provisions before continuing south. In the far south of Namibia, the Fish River rises in the centre of the country before flowing south into the Orange River, on Namibia's border with South Africa. In between, it has formed the great Fish River Canyon - the largest canyon in the southern hemisphere, and probably second of its kind only to Arizona's Grand Canyon in terms of size. Take a break from camping for the next two nights and make one of the areas lovely guest farms your base from which to explore this spectacular geological site.
Quiver Tree Forest to Fish River Canyon: approx. 3 hours (250km)
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 11 - Orange River
Enjoy the beauty and rapid change in scenery and landscapes as you travel south to the Orange River, the boundary between South Africa and Namibia. Your route follows the winding course of the river and you marvel at the stark contrast between barren mountains and the lush woodland growing along the banks. You travel to the small village of Aussenkehr and the nearby Norotshama campsite where you overnight in a tranquil setting on the river bank. For anyone feeling active, there is the chance to take an optional trip down the river on a canoe adventure.
Fish River Canyon to Orange River: approx. 4 hours (150 km)
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 12 - Aus
After breakfast by the Orange River and perhaps a quick dip, you follow the road over the southern escarpment towards the desert. The route takes you past the isolated outposts of Sendelingsdrift and Rosh Pinah, to the small hillside town of Aus. Here you camp for two nights at a stunning spot on the edge of the escarpment. The energetic may climb to view the setting sun over the Namib's vast Koichab Pan, before returning to the fold for dinner.
Orange River - Aus: approx. 4 hours (250km)
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 13 - Luderitz / Aus
Start early and begin by driving alongside the Sperrgebiet (the forbidden diamond-mining zone) to the historic old German coastal town of Luderitz. The beautiful pastel coloured buildings sit unchanged over the years in this gentle, relaxed town. Take time to visit Kolmanskop, a deserted boomtown from the early 20th century that is slowly being swallowed by the desert, and to explore the peninsula and the historic Diaz Point, where Bartolomeu Diaz, the Portuguese explorer, became the first European in Southern Africa. Driving back to your camp, you will stop to see the amazing wild desert horses that live along with oryx in the Namib.
Aus - Luderitz - Aus: approx. 3 hours (250km)
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 14 - Koiimasis
Today you take a spectacular drive north along the edge of the Namib Desert to Koiimasis Ranch. The name Koiimasis translates to mean 'meeting place' and originates from the Bushmen who made a living on the deserts edge in years gone by. Set amongst the scenic Tiras Mountains, the landscape varies from red sand dunes to quiver trees dotted between giant granite boulders. As this spot is so remote, you have the perfect opportunity for some amazing stargazing at night.
Aus to Koiimasis: approx 3 hours (175 km)
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 15 - Namib-Naukluft Park
This day of your desert adventure sees you continuing north along the western escarpment of the Rooisand ridge with fabulous vistas at every turn. Vast expanses of yellow savannah are dotted with shrubs and solitary camelthorn trees where a small herd of springbok or oryx take shade. You aim to arrive at the Desert Camp near Sesriem during the late afternoon with time to settle into one of the en-suite, twin bedded tents before settling down to watch the colours glow and change on the distant mountains to the east.
Koiimasis to Namib Desert Camp: approx. 4 hours (210 km)
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 16 - Namib-Naukluft Park
Your guide wakes you well before dawn for an early drive deep into the Namib Desert. This is home to stunning scenery and some of the world's highest dunes. Capturing the contrasting patterns of light and shadows of the early morning light on these dunes is worth the early wake up. After breakfast in the desert you continue to Sossusvlei and 'big daddy' dune, the view from the top (if you have the energy!) is spectacular. Take a walk to the nearby Dead Vlei, a dried out natural water pan with dead acacia tree trunks rising surreally to the sky. Spend the morning walking through this magnificent landscape with your guide followed by an afternoon visit to Sesriem Canyon, where the force of the ephemeral Tsauchab River has sculpted amazing shapes from the rock.
Desert Camp - Sossusvlei - Desert Camp: approx. 2 hours (150km)
Includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 17 - Windhoek
Driving back to Windhoek, you pass through yet more stunning scenery as the road climbs up the Remhoogte Pass and over the escarpment on to the Central Highlands. Stop for a picnic lunch at the picturesque Oanob Dam near Rehoboth before arriving at your guest house in the mid afternoon.
Desert Camp - Windhoek: approx. 5.5 hours (350km)
Includes breakfast and lunch.
Day 18 - Flight to London
Your morning is free to explore Windhoek, buy any last-minute souvenirs or enjoy a coffee at a cafe. You are met at your guest house during the afternoon and driven to the airport in time for your schedule flight to London.
Includes breakfast. Dinner is on the flight.
Day 19 - Arrive in London
Arrive home after a comprehensive adventure through desert landscapes in Namibia and South Africa.
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