20 Days / 19Nights - Namibia 4x4 Combination Tour

Routing Highlights: This flexible tour is a combination of Camping and Accommodation 4x4 Self Drive tour to some of Namibia's most remote and pristine wilderness areas. Windhoek - Waterberg Plateau Park - Etosha National Park - Southern Damaraland – Kaokoland - Epupa Falls - Kunene River – Kaokoland – Damaraland – Twyfelfontein – Swakopmund - Namib Naukluft Park - Sesriem – Sossusvlei - Windhoek Tour Information: Departure Date:                 Any date of your choice Departure Location:         Windhoek – Airport or City Tour Ends:                          Windhoek – Airport or City Car Rental: Fully Equipped 4x4 vehicle.  The type of vehicle rented will depend on your group size and amount of luggage and personal preference.

click route-map to enlarge

Tour Summary:

Itinerary:

Day 1
Windhoek
On arrival at the Windhoek Airport you will be welcomed by a company representative who will present you with your travel vouchers and assist you with the collection of your rental vehicle. Continue to the capital city, Windhoek. The remainder of the afternoon will be at leisure to view the historical landmarks of this cosmopolitan city or to do any last minute shopping for your tour.
Overnight in accommodation in Windhoek

Day 2
Waterberg Plateau Park
Departing Windhoek one heads north to the Waterberg Plateau Park via the small town of Okahandja. This is one of Namibia’s oldest established settlements and is the administrative centre of the Herero-speaking people. Numerous of the former Herero leaders are buried here and an annual procession through the town to the Herero graves commemorate those who died during the wars against the Nama’s and Germans. Optional excursions on route include a visit to the open - air wood carving centre and the Herero Graves.

Waterberg is a 150m high plateau of vividly coloured sandstone rising out of the surrounding plains like a towering oasis. Up to 16km wide, the top of the plateau is covered with lush vegetation and offers habitat to many rare and endangered species such as sable and roan antelope, tsessebe and white rhino. Leopards are also found, as are buffalo and over 200 bird species! Due to the dense nature of the vegetation, game viewing is usually limited, but the morning and afternoon drives which can be arranged from the National Parks office offer a very interesting experience. There are various walking trails leading around the sides and up to the top of the plateau and these offer exceptional views of the surrounding countryside.

Overnight Camping: Bernabe De La Bat Rest Camp - Waterberg Plateau Park.
Nestling amongst indigenous vegetation at the foot of the plateau, the rest camp was named after the first director of Namibia's Department of Nature Conservation.
The camp was designed to blend with the surroundings, and during construction as little as possible of the natural vegetation was disturbed. In addition, the reddish brown sandstone bricks of the buildings and their copper-coloured roofs echo the colour and texture of the cliffs overlooking the rest camp.
There are shaded camp sites with communal ablutions and field kitchens.
Other amenities include a swimming pool with a superb view of the cliffs, a restaurant, shop which stocks frozen meat, tinned goods and curios, and a filling station where only petrol is sold. The restaurant, kiosk and museum are housed in the restored Rasthaus, originally built in 1908 and used as a police post for several years.

Day 3, Day 4 & Day 5
Etosha National Park
Proceed to the world famous Etosha National Park. All camps have floodlit waterholes which attract Black and White Rhino, Elephant and Hyena – occasionally a leopard slips in to drink.
Etosha National Park is one of the world's pre-eminent wildlife areas, at the turn of the century the governor of then German South West Africa proclaimed an area of nearly 100000 square kilometres as a game reserve - until modern times, the largest reserve on earth. Present day Etosha National Park was pared down due to political considerations in the 1960's and is now a modest but still very impressive 23175 square kilometres in extent. A vast area on Namibia's central plateau, a haven for 93 mammal species and 340 bird species, the park's focal point is the Etosha Pan - a flat saline desert, 130 km long by 50km at its widest in the eastern sector of the park.
Etosha is known for its endemic species of Impala, the black faced variety and is said to have the tallest Elephants in Africa, measuring up to 4m at the shoulder. The park is also well recognised as being one of the last wild sanctuaries of the endangered Black Rhino.
Despite the massive size of Etosha, only the southern edge of the pan is accessible to casual visitors. There are three rest camps within the park at Okaukuejo, Halali and Namutoni. An extensive network of roads links the campsites with over 30 water holes in the central and eastern region - ideal places to sit and wait it out for game.
Overnight Camping: At one of the three Etosha National Park Resorts.

Day 6
Southern Damaraland
Leaving Etosha you head south to the small town of Outjo and continue north to Kamanjab in the southern Damaraland area>
Overnight in accommodation or camping at a Guest Farm in southern Damaraland.

Day 7
Kaokoland
Travel into Kaokoland. Pass the town of Opuwo, which is a mixture of cultures and languages, with traditional butcher shops alongside modern petrol stations, donkey carts plodding along the road.
Kaokoland is an area of Namibia which is one of the least accessible, and remains refreshingly untouched. The region lies North West of Etosha and is a vast and mountainous wilderness with a sparse population and few roads. Kaokoland is home to the ancient Himba tribe who are known for the ochre paste that they paint over their bodies.
Overnight Camping: En-route to Epupa Falls at a community campsite

Day 8 & 9
Epupa Falls - Kunene
Travel northwards to Epupa Falls, where the Kunene River cuts through barren, rocky mountains forming a green swath of paradise. The Kunene River offers opportunities for rafting, canoeing or simply relaxing. The Epupa Falls are made up of a series of beautiful cascades of water flowing to still pools which offer relatively safe areas for swimming or just cooling off!
Overnight in accommodation or camping at Epupa Falls

Day 10
Kaokoland
Travel the dusty track towards Kaoko Otavi, a Herero settlement and the site of one of the “homes” of the Dorsland (Thirstland) Trekkers – Afrikaners of Dutch and Huguenot origin. The Dorsland Trekkers left South Africa when it came under British rule and trekked through the Kalahari, on into Kaokoland and eventually settled in southern Angola in search of their Utopia.
Overnight Camping at Kaoko Otavi or Sanitatas

Day 11
Kaokoland
Purros, a small Himba settlement on the banks of the dry Hoarusib River provides a good opportunity of observing the Desert Elephant that move up and down the river bed in search of water and grazing.
Overnight Camping: Purros Community Camp

Day 12 & 13
Kaokoland - Damaraland
Continue your journey travelling in a southerly direction to Fort Sesfontein. Fort Sesfontein derives from the Afrikaans words ‘ses’ meaning six and ‘fontein’ meaning spring and refers to the six springs found here. This mountainous area of Namibia is situated between the extreme desert aridity of the skeleton coast and the central plateau. Damaraland offers spectacular scenery and a variety of attractions ranging from fascinating geological formations to unique vegetation and the largest collection of ancient rock art in Southern Africa.
The land to the north of the Huab and Ugab Rivers is one of the only areas where endangered animals are still found outside the countries' protected parks and reserves. Here Rhino can still be found, along with Lion, Giraffe, and several Antelope species, Ostrich, Mountain Zebra and Desert Elephant.
Overnight in accommodation or camping at Palmwag

Day 14
Twyfelfontein
Explore the magnificent landscapes of the central Huab River Valley and its main attractions. Visit Twyfelfontein with its ancient rock engravings and paintings.
The Petrified Forest can be found a few kilometres west of Khorixas and is the final resting place for a collection of huge, fossilised tree trunks. These trees were once part of an ancient forest and are thought to have been washed down from higher ground by floods. Around fifty trees can be seen and are thought to be around 200 million years old. Most are members of the gymnosperm family. Local guides escort visitors around an organised circuit and share their knowledge of this unique landscape feature.

Twyfelfontein is located a little further west of the Petrified Forest, the name means 'Doubtful Fountain' and is so called due to the unreliable water supply. It is yet another example of Namibia's stunning scenery and also contains what is said to be the largest collection of rock art in Southern Africa. The majority of art consists of rock etchings made by using stone chisels to cut through the hard outer crust of the local sandstone. Most of the work dates back around 6000 years and was probably undertaken by San hunters. Many of the huge boulders used as a surface for these ancient pieces of art have subsequently moved from their original resting places and it is quite possible that many more etchings lie beneath rocks overturned by thousands of years of natural disturbance.
Overnight in accommodation or camping at Aba Huab Community Camp

Day 15 & 16
Skeleton Coast - Swakopmund
Travel past the Brandberg Mountain (Namibia’s highest peak) across the barren plain to the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Cross. More rock paintings can be seen at the Brandberg Mountains, north of Uis. This is Namibia's highest mountain at 2573m and is strewn with pottery fragments and stone tools. The famous 'white lady' painting can be seen here, located in a protective shelter on the mountainside. Brandberg is also known as 'Fire Mountain', so named because the western face glows a vivid and beautiful red in the face of the setting sun. A 12km long volcanic ridge can be seen just south east of Twyfelfontein. Known as Burnt Mountain, this ridge looks very much as though a raging fire has decimated the area. Although very little grows here, the rocks become alive during sunrise and sunset when the whole area glows a burnt umber colour.
Cape Cross Seal Reserve with its surrounding area was proclaimed a reserve in 1968 to protect the biggest and best known of the 23 colonies of Cape fur Seals which breed along the coast of South Africa and Namibia. During the November / December breeding season as many as 150 000 of these animals gather at Cape Cross. It is also the area where the Portuguese navigator Diego Cao erected a stone cross in 1486.

Travelling southwards along the coastal road to Swakopmund one finds a great variety of lichens, of which Namibia has some of the rarest and most interesting species in the world. You may wish to consider optional excursions and activities whilst in Swakopmund.
Overnight in accommodation in Swakopmund

Day 17
Namib Naukluft Park
Namib Naukluft Park is one of Namibia’s most versatile conservation areas stretching over some 50 000 sq km with many a key features. Some areas of the park are:
Sandwich Harbour situated near Walvis Bay at the foot of towering dunes, the area was once an open bay which has become silted up over the years, and it is a sensitive environment which has gained international importance as a wetland.
Welwitschia Trail lies east of Swakopmund and offers a close look at a botanical curiosity endemic to the Namib Desert and is one of the most intriguing and bizarre plants.
Naukluft Mountain massif which was created to serve as a sanctuary for Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra which are endemic to Namibia and the remote south-western section of Angola.
Overnight in accommodation or camping in the area

Day 18 & 19
Sesriem / Sossusvlei
Sossusvlei with its monumentally high dunes, their sinuous crests and warm colours changing as the day waxes and wanes. These gigantic star-shaped mountains of sand, are a sought after topic for photographers with their warm tints ranging from pale apricot to brick orange and deep red contrast with the large white pans at their bases.
Sesriem Canyon where the erosion of many centuries has incised a narrow gorge, pools of water at its base is replenished after good rains.
Dead Vlei offers excellent photographic opportunities.
Elim Dune – a vegetated star dune on the edge of the gravel plains has Camelthorn trees around the base in which sociable weaver nest.
Overnight in accommodation or camping in the area

Day 20
Windhoek
Proceed northwards back to Windhoek via either the scenic Gamsberg or Spreetshoogte pass.

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Our tours are merely suggested itineraries and therefore can be tailor-made to suit your specific needs. Our Self Drive Tour routings are also suitable as a Guided Safari or Fly-In Safari. Routes can be amended according to your preference Accommodation can be changed to suit your style and budget Accommodation meal basis can be booked according to your requirements Extra nights can be added depending on your arrival and departure flight times and the pace that you want to travel