This old-style serviced camping safari recreates a sense of pure adventure for the traveller seeking an authentic African experience.
Game drives
Damaraland
Twyfelfontein
Etosha National Park
Sossusvlei
Wilderness’ Adventurer Explorations provide serviced spacious tents, designed to provide comfort in remote wilderness areas, coupled with lodges and hotels that accentuate the overall enjoyment and experience. The Adventurer style of accommodation takes you back to the great days of African exploration. Pure cotton linen bedrolls (with duvets) on GI stretchers, bedside table with silver lantern and mini luggage benches complement the atmosphere in pristine, wild camping areas. Separate toilet and shower ‘bathrooms’ with old-style tin bucket showers and basins and all amenities create simple serviced comfort.
Guides: The entire safari is guided and hosted by professional and passionate trained guides who share their in-depth knowledge to present a seamless, well -rounded experience.
Exclusive experience: To ensure total privacy and exclusivity, most areas in which we travel are private concessions in unspoiled, prime game and scenic locations. All campsites are private and for the use of Wilderness Safaris guests only.
Routes: The routes followed on this safari aim to track the shy, elusive wildlife of the desert, revel in the abundance of life on the Atlantic Coastline and view the enormous moving dunes of the Namib Desert. Surprisingly, the seemingly barren desert comes to life with an amazing plethora of plants and animals that have ingeniously adapted to their harsh surroundings – and in fact thrive. On this journey there is an excellent opportunity to find even the largest of mammals surviving here – the desert black rhino and elephant.
Transfers: To maximise guests’ travel time, a variety of transport modes that bring out the best of each area is used: flying in private charters (when the travelling experience is not enhanced by road) and cross-country transfers provide both a bird’s-eye view and an in-depth experience of the contrasting landscapes of Namibia.
Day 1 & 2 Etosha Transfer by comfortable charter flight to Namibia’s big game country: Etosha and its environs. Here, the diverse and varied flora and fauna is brought to life in a variety of activities, from game walks to game drives and visits to hides on the property and into the famous Etosha National Park. Within Etosha we’ll also visit numerous perennial springs and pans, encountering lion, leopard, elephant and black rhino as well as plains game. We stay the night at Ongava Homestead, a renovated old farmhouse, with en-suite bathrooms, and a farm kitchen overlooking its own waterhole, floodlit at night to watch nocturnal visitors, from the timid genet to big game such as elephant, lion, leopard and a host of antelope come to drink. Simple safari furnishings create a wonderful atmosphere in which to make friends and enjoy good company throughout the Exploration.
Day 3 Damaraland After an early breakfast, we depart westwards by road in the direction of Palmwag concession.
Here, on the concession and in the surrounding areas the desert-adapted elephant and black rhino can be found. Special activities include tracking and searching for these wonderful mammals on foot and by vehicle. The camp consists of 5 meru tents, built on individual, wooden platforms and offering a great scenic view of the surroundings and also the Desert Elephants when they visit the area. Situated about 600 m away from the restaurant and secluded from the rest of Palmwag Lodge, this stop over forms a private experience and feel. The tents are tastefully furnished, with en suite facilities, solar power and a wonderful atmosphere.
Over the course of the next four nights in this enormous wilderness area our guides expose the sheer magnificence of nature's survival strategies in this arid environment, through walks, tracking and game drives concentrating on a variety of topics from birds to insects, medicinal uses of plants and viewing wildlife.
Day 4 & 5 Damaraland, Twyfelfontein With an early start, our journey continues by road towards the ephemeral river of the Hoanib Valley. Here, in an area seemingly parched and desolate, we enter one of Namibia's richest desert wildlife areas.
The rugged mountains and canyons of the Hoanib River provide a last refuge for some of the continent's most unique wildlife; this is the home of the legendary desert elephant and the last free-roaming black rhino population on Earth. In fact seventy-five per cent of Namibia's endemic species inhabit this last bastion of the wilderness.
Experience the wilder side of Africa where only the sporadic roar of lion or cackle of hyaena punctuates the silence of the night. The Save the Rhino Trust has been involved with rhino conservation in this area since the early 1980s, with funding from and in partnership with Wilderness Safaris. The Trust is thus able to continue the conservation of this remarkable animal.
Our Discoverer-styled tented camp close to the Hoanib River is a relaxed haven from which we explore this wild land on foot, or from the comfort of one of our safari vehicles. The camp is powered by solar-powered inverter systems and there are no generators or pumps running whilst guests are in camp. There are 5 guest walk-in hexagonal meru-style tents with en suite and flush toilet and bucket shower bathrooms in a separate portion of the tent. Each tent is furnished with necessary comforts and styled with burnt orange interiors, wood and brass, effectively recreating a sense of the early explorers.
Day 6 Swakopmund Departing early, we travel east to Sesfontein and we end this road journey at the award-winning Damaraland Camp.
Damaraland Camp is situated on the northern face of the Huab River valley and looking south toward the imposing Brandberg Mountain. The camp accommodates guests in 10 comfortable tented rooms (with en-suite facilities including flush toilets and showers) with endless vistas as views. The dining room and pub are combined under canvas, and an open fire is enjoyed on calm evenings. A special feature of the camp is its unique natural rock pool.
Early morning mists generated by the clash between the icy Atlantic Ocean and the warm desert air of the Skeleton Coast, drift inland along the river sand canyon, providing sustenance to the flora and fauna of the region. Although wildlife is not concentrated, we are situated where the rare desert-adapted elephant roams, alongside gemsbok (Oryx), springbok, Ostrich and other hardy desert animals. Rare succulent plants eke out an existence in this harsh countryside. Website: www.damaraland.com
Day 7 We leave Damaraland Camp and cross over the Huab riverbed. Traveling south we begin finding some Welwitschia plants, we also come across some petrified wood and pass the Gai As spring where we find numerous stone circles made by people who lived here about 500 years ago. Continuing south we cross over the Ugab River and then start heading westwards towards the coast. As we get closer to the coast there are lichen fields strewn over the gravel plains, one of the most fragile ecosystems on Earth.
After relaxing over our packed lunch en route, we make for The Stiltz Lodge in the quaint and charming town of Swakopmund, arriving in the late afternoon. Swakopmund is a wonderful town in which to end a safari after the experiences of the northern Namibian bush, with its unique urban atmosphere that is a vibrant combination of Africa and Europe.
The Stiltz, as its name implies is built on stilts, providing breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean, the red iron-rich beach dunes and also the Swakopmund River mouth. Each of the 8 minimalist yet elegantly furnished thatched bungalows is linked by wooden walkways to the main restaurant. As the lodge is sited close to the central part of town, this allows for easy access to enjoy the special hospitality, history and cuisine.
Day 8 & 9 Sossusvlei After an early breakfast, we drive southwards to Walvis Bay Lagoon. Here in a protected bay, many flamingos, pelicans and other waterfowl amass. On the calm waters of the bay, we experience sea kayaking, a spectacular activity that allows us to approach seals, dolphins and water birds at a respectable distance and in their habitat, allowing for some unique photographic opportunities.
Afterwards, we drive inland to the Kulala Adventurer Camp in our private Sossusvlei concession.
Here we enjoy access to the Sossusvlei dunes, for walks in the immense moving sands of the Namib, game drives on our concession and stargazing. Photography in the early morning of the dunes is particularly stunning with rich reds and dark shadows completing the extraordinary vista that is the enormity of the Namib Desert.
Day 10 Windhoek After breakfast we transfer by road, including lunch overlooking the view of the plains below, to Windhoek and bid farewell to the adventure.
