Ultimate Namibia

DAY 1 | MONDAY 19 MAY - ARRIVE WINDHOEK

Arrive in Namibia today and after landing at Windhoek’s International Hosea Kutako Airport, about 40km outside the city, we will be welcomed by our representative who will transfer us to The Weinberg Hotel where we will overnight in one of their beautifully designed rooms.  The remainder of our afternoon and evening is at leisure.

Overnight: The Weinberg Hotel

DAY 2 | TUESDAY 20 MAY - WINDHOEK

Today is at leisure to recuperate from our flight and prepare for the adventure that lies ahead.

An optional tour of the city is on offer, along with a visit to the Penduka Development Trust – a female empowerment project that strives to elevate women by creating opportunities in entrepreneurship. Essentially they produce beautiful embroidered pieces, hand-made jewellery and recycled glass beads which will also provide us with our first retail therapy opportunity!

Early this evening the naturalist guide who will accompany us on our safari will provide a briefing on our upcoming adventure and will answer any questions you may have. A Welcome Dinner will be hosted this evening.

Overnight: The Weinberg Hotel

 

DAY 3 | WEDNESDAY 21 MAY - WINDHOEK TO ETOSHA

After breakfast depart Windhoek and head north through small towns and farming communities as you make your way to your lodge situated on the private Ongava reserve on the southern Etosha National Park boundary where you will stay for three nights.

This afternoon, embark on a sundowner drive as introduction to the Ongava Reserve before returning to the lodge after sunset for dinner. This evening you can enjoy further game viewing from the comfort of your rooms overlooking the lodges floodlit waterhole.

Overnight: Ongava Tented Camp

DAYS 4 & 5 | THURSDAY 22 & FRIDAY 23 MAY - ETOSHA

The next two full days will be spent game-viewing in the Etosha National Park from the comfort of your safari vehicle. Exploring the park, stopping at selected waterholes to observe the game gathered there along the way. Lunch can be enjoyed back at the camps or enjoy a picnic lunch at a scenic location inside the park. A special encounter is white rhino tracking – Ongava holds one of the largest rhino custodianships for the Namibian government: these have been set up in safe havens throughout the country in the hopes of breeding rhino up to more sustainable numbers and reintroducing them into areas where they previously flourished.

The afternoons can also be spent on scheduled afternoon game drives on the lodge’s private reserve searching for more game before returning to the lodge for dinner.

Overnight: Ongava Tented Camp

DAY 6 | SATURDAY 24 MAY - ETOSHA TO DAMARALAND

After an early breakfast, you continue your safari, heading west into the wonderful and diverse region of Damaraland. Typified by displays of colour, magnificent table topped mountains, rock formations and bizarre-looking vegetation, Damaraland offers some of the most breath-taking scenery on the safari. The present-day landscape has been formed by the erosion of wind, water and geological forces which have formed rolling hills, dunes, gravel plains and ancient river terraces. It is the variety and loneliness of the area as well as the scenic splendour which will reward and astound you, giving an authentic understanding of the word ‘wilderness’.

Time allowing, you can choose to visit the intriguing rock engravings of Twyfelfontein (a UNESCO Heritage Site) including some 2,500 prehistoric engravings that depict wildlife, animal spoor and abstract motifs – perhaps the largest and finest collection of petroglyphs in Africa. Otherwise, enjoy an afternoon of leisure with a sundowner from the camp’s beautiful viewpoint.

Overnight: Mowani Mountain Camp

DAY 7 | SUNDAY 25 MAY - DAMARALAND TO HOANIB VALLEY CAMP

It’s up early this morning for breakfast, after which you set off through picturesque and ever-changing desert scenery to reach Hoanib Valley Lodge, keeping a keen look out for wildlife such as giraffes, oryx, or even elephants if you are lucky as you along the way.

Depending on your time of arrival, you may have the afternoon available to relax, or your guide can take you on a short walk around the area and return to camp for sundowners.

Overnight: Hoanib Valley Camp

DAY 8 | MONDAY 26 MAY - HOANIB VALLEY CAMP

Explore the incredible landscape and its inhabitants with your guide, searching for desert adapted elephants and other wildlife, heading out on nature walks, and visiting to a local Himba community.

The Himba, Tjimba and other Herero people are traditionally semi-nomadic pastoralists who tend to tend from one watering place to another. The largest group is the Himba, semi-nomads who live in scattered settlements throughout the Kunene Region, and have lived a relatively isolated existence for centuries.  They are a tall, slender and statuesque people, characterized especially by their proud yet friendly bearing. The women especially are noted for their unusual sculptural beauty, enhanced by intricate hairstyles and traditional adornments.  They rub their bodies with red ochre and fat, a treatment that protects their skins against the harsh desert climate. The homes of the Himba of Kaokoland are simple, cone-shaped structures of saplings, bound together with palm leaves and plastered with mud and dung. The men build the structures, while the women mix the clay and do the plastering. A fire burns in the headman’s hut day and night, to keep away insects and provide light and heating.

A family may move from one home to another several times a year to seek grazing for their goats and cattle.   A Himba woman spends as much as three hours a day on her toilette. First she bathes, then she anoints herself with her own individually prepared mixture which not only protects her skin from the harsh desert sun, but also keeps insects away and prevents her body hair from falling out.  She uses another mixture of butter fat, fresh herbs and black coals to rub on her hair, and ‘steams’ her clothes regularly over the permanent fire. Men, women and children adorn themselves with striking necklaces, bracelets, anklets and belts made from iron and shell beads.

Overnight: Hoanib Valley Camp

DAY 9 | TUESDAY 27 MAY - HOANIB VALLEY CAMP TO DAMARALAND

You depart early morning, continuing your safari back to Damaraland where you will spend two nights at the beautiful Onduli Ridge, which is built at the base of two south facing granite outcrops, allowing for magnificent views of Namibia’s highest mountain, the Brandberg,

Arrival at the camp will be in the mid to late afternoon, with time to enjoy sundowners appreciating the unique surroundings of your camp in the Damaraland wilderness.

Overnight: Onduli Ridge

DAY 10 | WEDNESDAY 28 MAY - DAMARALAND

After an early breakfast you will be treated to an exciting private 4×4 excursion along the ephemeral river valleys to explore this remarkable region and to search for game, including the elusive desert adapted elephants if they are in the area.

Desert adapted elephant in Kaokoland and the Namib walk further for water and fodder than any other elephant in Africa ans their ranges are vast, following water courses , right to the Skeleton Coast. Not a separate species or even a subspecies, they are an ecotype unique to Namibia, behaviorally adapted to hyper-arid conditions. Elephants in Mali on the southwestern fringe of the Sahara Desert are the only others known to survive in similar conditions.

As the elephants are mostly active in the mornings you will normally have the best chance to see them then before returning to camp for lunch. However, you also have the option to take a picnic lunch to enjoy in the shade of a large Ana tree by the riverbed, ideally while watching a herd of elephant browsing nearby.

Your private guide will arrange to fit in a visit to Twyfelfontein and spend time at a Damara homestead to learn more about their culture and ways of life, much of which has been lost but is now honoured as part of a Living Museum initiative. You can also explore the area on foot or by bicycle or simply relax and enjoy some well-deserved leisure time.

Overnight: Onduli Ridge