Day 1 - Flight to Namibia
Fly to Namibia by scheduled overnight flight with South African Airways, departing in the evening and travelling via Johannesburg to arrive in Walvis Bay around midday the following day.
Includes dinner on the flight.
Day 2 - Swakopmund
Walvis Bay Airport is small so passing through customs is usually a fairly quick process. A driver will meet you in the arrivals hall and transfer you by road to the nearby seaside town of Swakopmund. It's about a 30-minute drive on good roads along the Atlantic coastline to reach your accommodation; one of Swakopmund's comfortable guesthouses. For tonight's dinner, you have a choice between Swakopmund's many good restaurants.
Includes breakfast on the flight.
Day 3 - Damaraland
A guide/transfer driver will meet you at your guesthouse just breakfast. Travel north along a salt road before turning north east deep into picturesque Damaraland. You're destination is Wereldsend base camp where you meet any members of your safari group that are joining the safari off a self-drive holiday or after a flight transfer from Swakopmund or Windhoek.
The Namibia Desert Lion Safari can easily be arranged as part of a self-drive holiday around Namibia. After driving yourselves to Wereldsend in Damaraland, you would leave your vehicle at the base camp here and join the other travellers on this 5-night safari.
Wereldsend is the historic base of IRDNC (Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation). It is where this now national community-based conservation programme was piloted in the early 1980's. Your accommodation for this night will be in a semi-permanent, comfortable tented camp that forms part of Wereldsend. Depending on your arrival time, you may get the chance to visit a nearby graveyard of bones, a potent reminder of mass commercial poaching during the 70's and early 80's. Poaching came close to wiping out desert-adapted rhino and elephant from these parts. Your guide will explain how attitudes have changed since then and how conservationists, such as Dr Flip Stander who you will soon meet, worked together with rural communities to turn the situation around.
Includes breakfast, a packed lunch and dinner.
Days 4 to 7 - 4 night/5 day Namibia Desert Lion Safari
The Namibia Desert Lion Safari is a specialist holiday giving intrepid travellers the chance to join Dr Flip Stander, a wildlife and conservationist expert, in the everyday running of his lion project. This safari focuses on real hands-on involvement and as a result it isn't possible to provide a fixed daily itinerary. We've described here as much as we can of this amazing experience, the remaining details are left up to chance. There is one thing we can assure you of though: this safari will offer you a unique, intense and incredible, sometimes even life-changing, experience.
Dr Philip (Flip) Stander has worked with carnivores for over 27 years and has dedicated the last 12 of these to the conservation of Namibia's desert lions. Before taking up the lion's plight, Dr Flip Stander spent time in the US as a research associate with Cornell University in the US; working in Namibia as a ranger and field research officer with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET); studying at Cambridge University where he obtained his M.Phil and PhD; and working for the MET in Namibia again. In early 2004 Dr Stander resigned from MET and set up his own wildlife consultancy business, Wildlife Science, and in this role he took on the Desert Lion Conservation project. To survive in this arid desert environment the lions need to cover great distances, and this inevitably brings them into contact with villagers that also live here. Dr Stander's time is not only spent studying these magnificent creatures but also trying to find real solutions to the human/lion conflict that unavoidably arises from sharing the same area and resources. Dr Flip Stander has extensive knowledge on predators, wildlife management, conservation, community involvement and Namibia as a whole.
During the Namibia Desert Lion Safari, travellers accompany Dr Stander on his daily mission to learn more about the fascinating desert lions and to ensure their future. There are only thought to be 100-130 of these unique cats in a 55,000km2 area of Namibia's remote Kunene Region. So whilst there is a real chance to see these great predators on this safari, a sighting would be an added bonus rather than a guarantee.
Which area of the Kunene you stay at will depend on where Dr Flip Stander is working from at the time. Accommodation will be in a mobile camp staying in 3x3 metre canvas dome-tents kitted out with bedrolls, linen, duvets, pillows and towels. During the 4-night safari the mobile camp may move once or twice, following the movements of the project. The site for the mobile camp could be a remote wilderness spot or a community campsite. Each time a camp team will break down the camp and erect it again on the new site, leaving you to make the most of your time with the safari guide and Dr Stander.
The amount of travelling done each day will also depend on the project's movements as the team spend time tracking and searching for the lions. As lions are nocturnal you may also spend some hours each night searching for and hopefully observing these big cats. Part of the time may also be spent joining the project team as they consult with local communities about their conflict with the lions and possible solutions to these problems.
Each day includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 8 - Swakopmund
Start the day with an early breakfast before travelling back to the base camp at Wereldsend. Some of your travelling companions may depart the safari here as they continue on their self-drive journeys or opt for a quicker flight transfer back to Swakopmund. For those of you that remain with your safari guide, it's a long drive today (lasting 8-9 hours) that takes you back west and south to the coastal town of Swakopmund. You'll arrive back at your guesthouse in the early evening and in time for a relaxed dinner at a nearby restaurant.
If the long drive doesn't appeal to you, speak to us about the possibility of a flight transfer from Wereldsend to Swakopmund. This can be arranged at an additional cost.
Includes breakfast and a packed lunch.
Day 9 - Flight to London
Enjoy a stroll along the beach or a tasty coffee at a pavement cafe before transferring to Walvis Bay Airport for your scheduled flight home.
Includes breakfast. Dinner is on the flight.
Day 10 - Arrive in London
Return home with a greater knowledge of the type of conservation work being done to preserve some of the planet's fascinating wildlife.
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