WELCOME TO NAMIBIA!
After collecting your rental car at the Hosea Kutako Airport (about 45 minutes outside Windhoek), you drive into the capital city to your hotel.
In the afternoon you can explore this interesting city that still has many traces of its German past, visiting famous buildings like the Old Fort, the Tintenpalast, the Independence Memorial Museum or the Church of Christ (Christuskirche). You could also undertake a guided tour to Kathatura township, which is a fascinating, humbling and eye opening experience or go shopping along Independence Avenue. Of course you can also just relax in the guest house’s pool, which is heated by a natural thermal spring.
For dinner (not included) we recommend Joe’s Beerhouse with its special atmosphere for some local culinary delights.
During the drive south, you will already get an impression of the vastness of the country. You travel via Rehoboth and Kalkrand to your lodge on the C20 between Stampriet and Mariental. Between Rehoboth and Kalkrand you will cross the Tropic of Capricorn. Your lodge is situated in a private 10 000ha nature reserve with three different ecosystems: savannah, dry river beds with riverine bush and red Kalahari sand dunes. Game that can be seen in the nature reserve includes giraffe, zebra, big and small antelope, Wildebeest and various small cats.
We suggest that you book an optional guided nature drive at Anib Lodge before you continue your journey. Today you continue in a southerly direction to the town of Keetmanshoop. On the way you should visit the Quiver Tree Forest, with its large Tree Aloes from which the Bushmen made cases for their poisonous arrows – hence the name. In the same area, just north of Keetmanshoop you should also visit the Playground of the Giants, where large boulders are stacked upon each other like children’s building blocks.
After breakfast you depart for Ai Ais in the famous Fish River Canyon. As you approach Ai Ais you will have glimpses of the canyon from the road and then you travel over a mountain pass to enter the canyon itself. Here you could optionally have a swim in the thermal spring baths (extra if not overnighting there) and also have lunch (not included), and when you have had enough of the baths in the canyon you travel to your lodge in the area above the canyon.
After breakfast you first travel to the view sites above the Fish River Canyon before continuing to the edge of the Namib Desert. Here you can truly experience the breathtaking vastness of this canyon. Thereafter the journey continues past Seeheim to the Aus area.
After breakfast you continue to Lüderitz, the interesting desert harbour town. Soon after leaving Aus you will arrive at the entrance to the Restricted Area, where diamonds lie around like pebbles. Just past Aus you will also pass a desert waterhole where not only the elegant Oryx antelope but also Wild Horses survive. During the course of the morning you will reach Lüderitz - an Oasis on the cold the Atlantic Ocean. In the afternoon you should visit the Diaz Cross, erected in 1488 by Portuguese explorers.
As you leave Lüderitz you could go on an optional guided tour of Kolmanskop (has to be booked in Lüderitz), the desert ghost town which arose in the middle of the desert at the beginning of the previous century, after diamonds were discovered here. In its heyday the imported champagne used to be less expensive than the bottled water on the tables of the rich. After departing Kolmanskop, you continue on a long dusty road, towards Helmeringhausen. Here you can really experience the grandiose landscape of Namibia, especially along the Tiras Mountains, with their strange rock formations.
After a leisurely breakfast you continue towards Sossusvlei. En route you could make a short stop at Duwisib Castle, which Captain Wolf built in 1904 “in the middle of nowhere”. The next morning (day 9) you depart before sunrise to the Namib Naukluft National Park, where you can also climb one of the huge dunes. From the Park entrance it is around 65km to the parking area among the dunes, from where you could optionally take a 4x4 transfer for the remaining 5km to Sossusvlei - the dried-up swamp area of the Tsauchab River. Afterwards you should still visit the Sesriem Canyon, where the river has washed a deep gorge into the countryside. The afternoon is spent at your leisure.
Today you drive over the Gaub & Kuiseb Passes and through the Namib Desert to the coastal town of Walvis Bay, where the waves of the cold Atlantic Ocean crash onto the hot sand and where most mornings everything is shrouded in mist. From Walvis Bay you continue along the coast to Swakopmund, where many buildings from the German, colonial past remain. For dinner (not included), we recommend the Station Grill in the historic old station or the well-known “Cape To Cairo” restaurant in the Hotel Grüner Kranz, where you can experience an interesting cross-section of African cuisine, such as stuffed venison stomach.
The whole day is at your leisure. You could simply enjoy the sun on the beach – swimming in the sea is only for the very brave, as the Atlantic Ocean could even be a few degrees colder than the North Sea here. You could also go shopping at the excellent shops in town and buy some Namibian ‘velskoene’ or a safari suit, or you could take a walk around this interesting town. If you prefer, you could optionally go on a sight-seeing flight over the desert in a light aircraft, or you could go dune-boarding or even quad-biking in the desert.
After breakfast you travel back in the direction of Windhoek, again passing through the desert and then continuing via Usakos and Okahandja to a guesthouse situated between Windhoek and the airport. Last chance to relax and enjoy the Namibian hospitality before your flight home the next day.
Today you drive to the Hosea Kutako Airport to drop off your rental car and to check in for your flight home.
