Oryx Camping Safari

Day 1 - Windhoek
Your guide will meet you at the Windhoek International Airport and transfer you to Hilltop House in Windhoek.

Hilltop House was built in 1958 and has an old world charm reminiscent of bygone days. Oregon pine decks and commanding views over Windhoek add to the appeal of this wonderful home.

Accommodation: The Hilltop House
Meal arrangements: None included

Day 2 - Namib Naukluft Park
Today you drive south-west to the Namib Naukluft Park via the spectacular Spreetshoogte pass. En route you will enjoy a picnic lunch. Situated on the edge of the Namib Desert, the Naukluft complex takes its name from the spectacular, narrow gulley on the eastern side of the massif. Its rugged mountains, deep ravines and crystal-clear pools come as a complete surprise to the unsuspecting visitor. The mountain is ideal hiking country.

A variety of antelope, predators, small mammals and birds can be seen in this area. Another attraction of the Naukluft is its interesting geological history, which dates back 2,000 million years to the time when the basement complex which consists of meta sedimentary and volcanic rock, gneisses and granites, was formed.

An interesting feature of the Naukluft Mountains is the numerous tufa formations. These porous limestone deposits usually occur on the faces of waterfalls, and the enormous size of some of these formations and their widespread distribution throughout the Naukluft Mountains provide evidence of a considerably wetter climate during the recent past. Also known as fountain stone or waterfall limestone formations, they were formed when calcium carbonate-rich water evaporated.

Accommodation: Camping, Namib Naukluft Park
Meal arrangements: Breakfast, picnic lunch and dinner

Day 3 and 4 - Sossusvlei
After breakfast and a short hike we drive about 100km to Sossusvlei, which has some of the highest dunes in the world reaching up to 350 metres. Enjoy a sundowner on Elim Dune late afternoon.

A very early start before first light. Drive to Sossusvlei in time to see the beautiful Namib sunrise. After lunch you will visit the Sesriem Canyon, one of the amazing features of the Namib. Here the Tsauchab River has carved a gorge - up to 30 metres deep and about 1 km long - into the conglomerate gravels deposited some 15 - 18 million years ago during a wetter phase in the history of the Namib. From the parking area a track leads to the canyon floor and a walk into Sesriem is like descending through the layers of time.

Accommodation: Sesriem Campsite, Namib Naukluft Park
Meal arrangements: Breakfast, picnic lunch and dinner

Day 5 and 6 - Swakopmund and Walvis Bay
After breakfast, you drive north-west to the coastal town of Swakopmund. As you travel towards the Atlantic Coast you will see the scenery change from sand dunes to dark craggy canyons and then to flat gravel plains. You will also visit the moon landscape, which reveals the famed Welwitschia plants that grow on seemingly lifeless gravel plains. We will have a picnic lunch en route.

Spend two days exploring Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and the surrounding area with your guide. The Walvis Bay Lagoon is a RAMSAR site and home to thousands of flamingos and numerous other species that gather at these rich feeding grounds. Altogether some 80 000 wading birds can be seen on the lagoon. Extra optional activities include dolphin cruises, scenic flights over the Skeleton Coast, quad biking and fishing.

Accommodation: Swakopmund Municipal Bungalows
Meal arrangements: Breakfast

Day 7 - Damaraland
Today you drive north along the Skeleton Coast and visit Cape Cross, where tens of thousands of Cape fur seals breed. Continuing the journey up the coast, you cross the windswept gravel plains bordered by the icy green Atlantic on one side and the endless desert on the other.

From Aba Huab campsite you have easy access to the rugged mountains and dry river valleys, where black rhino and desert-adapted elephant can often be seen.

Accommodation: Camping, Aba Huab
Meal arrangements: Breakfast, picnic lunch and dinner

Day 8 and 9 - Etosha National Park
After breakfast we visit Twyfelfontein, which is one of the most extensive ancient rock art sites in Africa. Some of these engravings date back to the Early Stone Age. We also visit the Organ Pipes, which are exposed in a gorge, 100m long and reach a maximum height of 5m. They were formed by the intrusion of a dolerite sheet, a plutonic rock, into the shales of the Karoo Sequence some 120 million years ago. Our last visit in Damaraland is to the Petrified Forest, which lies on a small sandstone rise and covers an area of about 65ha in the Aba Huab River valley. The fossilised trees occur in sandstone of the Ecca Group, a subdivision of the Karoo Sequence, and are about 260 million years old.

You will travel north to the enormous 22,000sq km Etosha National Park. Herds of Burchell's zebra, Springbok and numerous other antelope species provide continual hunting opportunities for the Lion prides. Etosha is famous for its Elephant and also has good numbers of Black rhino, Damara dik-dik and Black faced Impala.

We spend two days here and go on game drives in the park. A special attraction of Okaukuejo, which was the first rest camp opened to visitors, is the waterhole just outside the perimeter of the camp. At night the waterhole is floodlit, giving visitors the opportunity to spot animals not often seen during the daytime. The camp today serves as the administrative headquarters of the park and is also the centre of the Etosha Ecological Institute.

Accommodation: Camping, Okaukuejo
Meal arrangements: Breakfast/picnic lunch/dinner

Day 10 and 11 - Etosha National Park
Today we head through the park to Namutoni Rest Camp, the most easterly camp in the park, with a lunch stop en route at Halali. Namutoni was developed around a German fort built in 1902 and now houses a museum and accommodation units of various sizes.

The lodge overlooks a floodlit waterhole and it has a game-viewing hut and lookout tower. Several waterholes in the area make for excellent game drives, which will occupy us for the next two days.

Accommodation: Camping, Namutoni
Meal arrangements: Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Day 12 - Waterberg Plateau Park
The Waterberg Plateau Park was created as a sanctuary for rare and endangered species of the Caprivi, and is one of Namibia's most diverse parks in terms of flora and fauna.

The park is about 200km north of Windhoek. It covers over 40,000ha and the plateau is 48km long with a width that varies from 8km to 16km. Several hikes have been laid out in the park that will take you right up the plateau.

Game such as roan and sable antelope are likely to be found when you join a game drive on top of the plateau. Many bird species and a diversity of mammals are to be found in the varying habitats of this scenic park.

Another fascinating aspect of the Waterberg is its interesting geology and it is, therefore, not surprising that the conservation of a representative area of the geologically important Etjo Sandstone Formation is one of the management objectives of the park.

Activities include game drives – operated by the park's rangers as an optional extra – and hiking trails accompanied by your guide.

Accommodation: Camping, Waterberg Plateau Park
Meal arrangements: Breakfast, picnic lunch and dinner

Day 13 - Windhoek
After breakfast we set off for Windhoek, about two and half hours away, to arrive in time for your flight. Time permitting we will stop en route at the wood carving market in Okahandja.

Meal arrangements: Breakfast