Welcome to Namibia!
On arrival into Windhoek International Airport, clear immigration, collect your bags, and proceed via customs to the arrivals hall. Here, meet a driver who will transfer you to your accommodation. Check in and spend one night at Villa Vista with dinner and breakfast included.
After breakfast, it's time to check out. Please be ready in reception at the agreed time and meet your private guide who will be with you for the duration of your Namibian safari.
Depart Windhoek in your safari vehicle with your personal guide and drive northwards towards Etosha National Park where you will stay for one night at Okaukuejo, located in Etosha National Park. Your journey today takes you through Okahandja and Otjiwarongo where you will visit the Okahandja Craft Market. A picnic lunch will be enjoyed en route and you will arrive at Okaukuejo in the mid-afternoon. If there is still time this afternoon, your guide will take for your first game drive. Alternatively, you might like to explore your surrounding area or simply relax at the camp; soaking in the peaceful scenery and watching the game come and go at the camp’s waterhole.
Check in and spend one night at Okaukuejo Resort with all meals included.
After breakfast, it's time to check out. Meet your guide at the agreed time. Today is spent game driving across Etosha National Park in an easterly direction. Lunch is served along the way before reaching Halali Resort in the afternoon, where you will stay for the next two nights. The rest of the afternoon is spent at your leisure (very often this is welcome after a long day’s game driving) or you can head into the Park to spend more time at the waterholes around Halali. Either way, you will return to Halali Resort by sunset and an evening of watching game at the busy, floodlit Halali waterhole may bring some exciting sightings of the nocturnal animals in the area.
On arrival at Halali Camp, check in and spend 2 nights with meals included. Spend these days enjoying game drives through the national Park with your private guide.
After breakfast, it's time to check out. Meet your guide at the agreed time and make your way back to Okaukuejo Rest Camp. Check in and spend one night with all meals included.
You can opt to spend the rest of the afternoon at leisure or you can head into the Park to spend more time at the waterholes around Okaukuejo. Either way, you will return to Okaukuejo Resort by sunset and an evening of watching game at the busy, floodlit Okaukuejo waterhole may bring some exciting sightings of the nocturnal animals in the area.
After an early breakfast, it's time to check out. Meet your guide and head into the heart of Damaraland, travelling in a western direction to your accommodation at Grootberg Lodge. Enroute to your lodge your guide will take you to visit a local Himba settlement – we may have to search for a while as the semi- nomadic Himba people sometimes move location with no notice. They are one of the last most traditional people of Namibia and have little time for conventional practices. We will learn about the customs and traditions of this very proud nation, and will be given insight into their beliefs, way of life and everyday routine.
On arrival, check in and spend one night at Grootberg Lodge with all meals included. The rest of the afternoon is at your leisure, before enjoying a sundowner to experience one of the most magnificent views in Namibia.
After breakfast, it's time to check out. Meet your guide at the agreed time and make your way to your next camp in Erongo Mountain Nature Conservancy driving via small towns and farming communities. You should arrive in time for a late lunch at Erongo Wilderness Lodge, which is located at the base of the granite formations near the Erongo Mountains. Here you can enjoy the welcoming atmosphere, superb accommodation and interesting activities, starting with a guided afternoon drive in the local area and a short walk to Paula’s Cave where guest visit the rock paintings.
On arrival, check in and spend one night at Erongo Wilderness Lodge with all meals included.
This morning after breakfast, meet your guide at an agreed time and depart the remarkable Erongo Wilderness Lodge and drive south into the Namib Desert. A picnic lunch can be taken at a scenic location en-route as you will arrive at your lodge by late afternoon. This afternoon you have the option to visit Sesriem Canyon, if there is still time, or you can just relax and soak in the scenic and tranquil surroundings at the Lodge.
On arrival, check in and spend four nights at Sossus Dune Lodge with all meals included. Spend these days enjoying morning and afternoon activities with your guide.
The next three days will be spent on exciting activities as you rise early in the mornings for magical excursions into the dunes with your guides. As you are already inside the park you can get into Sossusvlei before everyone else and you would even be able to get there in time to see the sun rise to capture the dunes whilst the light is soft and shadows accentuate their towering shapes and curves, if you are prepared to get up early enough. This area boasts some of the highest free-standing sand dunes in the world. Your guides will give you an insight on the formation of the Namib Desert and its myriad of fascinating creatures and plants that have adapted to survive these harsh environs. Once you have explored the area to your heart’s content, you will enjoy a relaxing picnic breakfast under the shade of a camel thorn trees on both mornings, if desired. Return to Sossus Dune Lodge in the early afternoon for lunch, stopping off to view Sesriem Canyon on one of the days. The afternoons can be spend visiting the dunes or at your leisure (from experience, this is usually welcomed after an exhilarating morning in the dunes).
The white clay pan contrasts against the orange sands and forms the endpoint of the ephemeral Tsauchab River, within the interior of the Great Sand Sea. The river course rises south of the Naukluft Mountains in the Great Escarpment. It penetrates the sand sea for some 55km before it finally peters out at Sossusvlei, about the same distance from the Atlantic Ocean. Until the encroaching dunes blocked its course around 60,000 years ago, the Tsauchab River once reached the sea; as ephemeral rivers still do in the northern half of the Namib. Sand-locked pans to the west show where the river previously flowed to before dunes shifted its endpoint to where it currently gathers at Sossusvlei. Roughly once a decade rainfall over the catchment area is sufficient to bring the river down in flood and fill the pan. On such occasions the mirror images of dunes and camel thorn trees around the pan are reflected in the water. Sossusvlei is the biggest of four pans in the vicinity. Another, famous for its gnarled and ghostly camel thorn trees, is Deadvlei which can be reached on foot over 1km of sand. Deadvlei’s striking camel thorn trees; dead for want of water, still stand erect as they once grew. They survived until about 900 years ago when the sand sea finally blocked the river from occasionally flooding the pan.
After breakfast, it's time to check out. Meet your guide at the agreed time and make your way back to Windhoek. The drive takes you in a northerly direction, through the Khomas Hochland highlands, leaving the Namib Desert behind you. Lunch will be enroute and you arrive at your accommodation in the mid afternoon.
On arrival check in and spend one night at Villa Vista with a farewell dinner tonight included plus breakfast.
After breakfast, please be ready at the agreed time and transfer to the airport for your onward flight home.
All arrangements with Encompass Africa come to an end.
