Day 1 - Flight to Namibia
Fly from the UK to Namibia on a 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
Upon arriving at the small Walvis Bay Airport and passing through customs, you'll be met and transferred by road to the nearby seaside town of Swakopmund. The drive takes about a 30 minutes and travels on good roads along the Atlantic coastline to reach your accommodation; one of Swakopmund's comfortable guesthouses. You have the choice of one of Swakopmund's good restaurants for dinner tonight.
Includes breakfast on the flight.
Day 3 - Damaraland
A guide/transfer driver will pick you up from your Swakopmund guesthouse just breakfast. Travel north along the Atlantic coast on a salt road before turning north east across desert plains and into Damaraland. You'll arrive at Wereldsend base camp in the mid-afternoon where you meet the 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 Specialist Kaokoland Safari is led by Steve Braine who has a love and a passion for the bush and is recognised as one of Namibia's top naturalists. Steve's interest in flora and fauna began at a very early age, encouraged by his father. Following in his father's footsteps, he has a particular love of birds and butterflies, with four butterflies named after him.
Steve Braine began his career as an exploration geologist before studying nature conservation and working for almost ten years in the Skeleton Coast Park. It was here that he built upon his expertise and affinity with the Namib Desert. Now a natural history expert and top ornithologist, Steve is as interested in large mammals as the reptiles, birds and small creatures that reside in this enthralling environment. Days on the Specialist Kaokoland Safari could be spent searching for any number of these interesting species and learning how they've adapted to live in this harsh environment. At night, Steve might lead the group on walks and drives seeking out nocturnal mammals, birds and reptiles.
The remote and arid Kaokoland in north-west Namibia has some of the country's most enticing, yet most inhospitable landscapes. It is rugged, remote and beautiful in its vast wilderness and an area that can hide baking desert, soft sand traps, severe water shortages and occasional flash floods. Kaokoland sees only a few visitors each year and so its scattered communities and uniquely adapted wildlife are relatively unaffected by foreign elements. This makes this remote location especially perfect for unusual and specialised sightings and makes it a superb safari landscape for those interested in natural history.
Which area of Kaokoland you explore will depend on wildlife movements and climatic patterns - the decision is based on Steve Braine's expert advice. Rainfall in this arid to semi-arid area is an unpredictable and life giving event and can be the overwhelming factor in where desert adapted wildlife is to be found. What we can be sure of is that you'll visit the area of Kaokoland from the often dry Hoanib river course in the south and the remote Orupembe Conservancy to the north. It's an area that provides a fascinating diversity of habitats from riverine vegetation and barren plains to isolated inselbergs and harsh mountains. Each day will be spent seeking out the specialised flora and fauna found here and learning from Steve Braine's encyclopaedic knowledge of their habits and how they adapted to this harsh environment.
Accommodation on these nights will be in a mobile camp staying in 3x3 metre canvas dome-tents furnished with bedrolls, linen, duvets, pillows and towels. Over the course of the 4-night safari the mobile camp may move once or twice, depending on the best areas to visit at that particular time of year. The site for the mobile camp could be a remote wilderness spot or a community run campsite. Each time the 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 Steve Braine.
Each day includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Day 8 - Swakopmund
Start your day with an early breakfast before driving back to the base camp at Wereldsend. Some of your travelling companions may depart the safari here as they pick up their hire vehicles and 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 a total of about 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.
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
There will be a little time for souvenir shopping or a 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 insight to Namibia's unique and fascinating natural history.
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