Namibia Cheetah Safari

1-Join tour Windhoek
Arrive Windhoek and check into hotel. The day is free to explore the city.
Overnight: Standard Hotel

2-Drive to Sesriem
We spend the day driving south-west into the Namib Desert, to the edge of the Namib- Naukluft National Park and our campsite at Sesriem. The Namib is the oldest desert on earth, distinguished as being home to some of the strangest flora and fauna on the continent.
Overnight: Basic Camping

3-Exploring Sossusvlei and Sesriem Canyon
Today we drive into the Namib-Naukluft National Park, the largest nature reserve in Africa and travel down the Tsauchab Valley to Sossusvlei to watch the sun rise and cast its shadows over the red dunes. Sossusvlei has some of the world’s most spectacular and highest sand dunes, including the incredibly photogenic Dune 45. The area itself is a vast depression or clay pan towered over by sand dunes up to 300m high. In the early morning, the first rays of the sun light up the dunes with a deep orange glow – a
photographer’s delight. It is a wild, beautiful and romantic spot with sparse vegetation edging a few watercourses that flow in from the Tsauchab River. We’ll also explore the cool passageways of the Sesriem Canyon on foot. A deep slash in the earth, the picturesque canyon is approximately 1km long and its shade offers shelter to numerous plants, while its water pools attract several species of birds and animals. Sesriem means six thongs. This refers to the six lengths of rawhide rope needed to make a line long enough to lower from the rim of the gorge to the stream below, in order to haul up a bucket of water in days gone by.
Overnight: Basic Camping

4-Drive to Swakopmund via Walvis Bay
An optional early morning balloon ride is an excellent way of gaining a unique perspective of the vast desert landscapes of this stunning region of Namibia. Drifting silently over the desert landscape (wind dependent), keep your eyes open for desert wildlife foraging for food. Alternatively, you may wish to take a scenic aircraft flight at dawn. Travelling via Solitaire and through the Kuiseb Canyon, we then pass awe-inspiring landscapes as we head across the Namib gravel flats to Walvis Bay. Here a large spit forms a natural deep-sea harbour, which attracted the first European navigators in the late 1400s. The shallows, located where the spit joins the mainland, are home to a diverse collection of birds. The most spectacular being flamingos and pelicans that feed here seasonally (May to November usually). It’s a short drive from here to the coastal town of Swakopmund.
Overnight: Standard Lodge

5-In Swakopmund
Swakopmund is, without doubt, one of the most fascinating and best-preserved colonial towns in Africa. Built by the Imperial German Government over a period of some 25 years, it contains some of the finest examples of colonial German architecture still standing. This morning we will drive to Walvis Bayto tour the harbour and lagoon areas by ski boat. There are excellent opportunities here for sighting dolphins, or seals, flamingos and pelicans. If we are very lucky, we may even get a sighting of whales as they migrate to and from the frozen waters of the Antarctic.This afternoon there will be time to explore on your own to visit the town’s excellent museum and hopefully watch the sunset from the nearby coastal dune belt.
Overnight: Standard Lodge

6-Drive to Southern Damaraland via Cape Cross and Twyfelfontein Rock Art
Travelling north towards the Atlantic coast we visit the memorable Cape Cross Seal Colony where between 80,000 and 100,000 Cape fur seals bask in the sun or swim playfully in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The seals are natural indicators of fish stocks in the ocean. If the fish stocks are healthy, then the seal numbers are high. If the fish stocks are poor, then the seal numbers will be low. The seals are quite big, an average male weighing-in at anything up to 187kg (501 lbs). The females give birth to a single pup
around late November to early December. After our visit we head inland, passing the majestic Brandberg Mountain (2,573m and the highest point in Namibia) as we enter the southern part of Damaraland. This afternoon we see the Bushmen paintings and engravings at Twyfelfontein. The massif of Twyfelfontein contains a spectacular record of the rock art of the Khoisan people, painted and incised into the sandstone of the mountain over a thousand years.
Overnight: Basic Camping

7-Drive to Otjitotongwe
This morning we will travel to the extraordinary Petrified Forest, with its huge fossilised tree trunks, which was declared a National Monument in 1950; it is estimated to be about 200 million years old, and both the bark and the tree rings are perfectly preserved. We then head further into Damaraland, and make our way to the Otjitotongwe Cheetah Reserve on a Namibian farm, arriving in time to join the daily expedition to feed the wild cheetahs that are protected on their land. If time allows we will visit a local Himba village. The Himba are a nomadic people closely related to the indigenous Herero tribes. Living a pastoral existence, the Himba migrate with the seasons, taking their herds of goats and cattle from waterhole to waterhole, keeping them reasonably secluded from outside influences and allows them to retain much of their culture and traditions. Appearance is important to the Himba and clothes, hair and jewellery all hold special meaning in the daily lives of these people. The woman can spend hours preparing themselves, smearing their bodies in a mix of rancid butterfat and ochre to heighten the reddish glow of their skin – a sign of supreme beauty for the Himba.
Overnight: Basic Camping

8-Drive to Okaukuejo area of Etosha National Park; game drives
This morning we make straight for Etosha National Park. The park offers some of the best game viewing in Africa, with some 114 mammals, 110 reptiles and more than 340 different bird species having been identified. Okaukuejo is one of the three rest camps situated within the park and we plan to stay two nights here with a full day of game drives. Etosha has one of the largest populations of the endangered black rhinoceros, difficult to spot in the day, but can be a frequent visitor to the floodlit waterhole at Okaukuejo after dusk.
Overnight: Basic Camping

9-In Etosha National Park
Today we continue with our game drives within the National Park
Overnight: Basic Camping

10-Game drives in Etosha National Park
We continue our safari through Etosha National Park. Etosha is an immense, saline desert, covering over 12,400 square miles. Our programme of game drives is left as flexible as possible. We may see elephant, rhino and hopefully lion. The terrain ranges from dense bush to large open plains where animals roam freely. We drive along the network of gravel roads that criss-cross the park, visiting the various viewpoints and the permanent waterholes around which animals congregate in the dry season. There is something
enigmatic in the vast silent grey-white pan that covers the reserve. Numerous waterholes and underground springs attract large herds of animals including springbok, zebra, wildebeest and giraffe. At its very heart is the Etosha Pan. Geologists believe that it was formed some 12 million years ago from an inland lake about the size of Holland. It has shrunk to its present dried-up size and is now a gigantic depression in the ground – flat, saline and silvery. A mysterious place of mirages and dust-laden images. While you are here, you may want to try a night drive in the area surrounding either camp.
Overnight: Basic Camping

11-Drive to Waterberg Plateau, visit Cheetah Conservation Fund
Leaving Etosha, we drive towards the Waterberg Plateau and visit the Cheetah Conservation Fund. Namibia has the largest population of wild cheetahs in the world and today at the CCF we’ll spend time learning about the world’s fastest land animal (which can reach speeds of up to 70 mph) and meet a few of the residents. This is an internationally recognised centre of excellence in research and education on cheetahs and their ecosystems with an extensive visitors’ centre, which encourages visitors to learn more about these beautiful cats.
Overnight: Comfortable Lodge

12-In Waterberg Plateau Park
The Waterberg Plateau is a sandstone mountain that rises over 200m from the surrounding plains and is Namibia’s only mountain game park. Originally set up as a sanctuary for rare and endangered species, such as white and black rhino, sable and roan, it now boasts leopard, baboon, kudu and the elusive Damara dik-dik amongst its resident population. It also has an estimated 200 species of birds.Today we have time to take one of the various trails, or you could choose to take an optional game drive onto the plateau in one of the park’s smaller 4WD vehicles, to visit some of its many waterholes and hides.
Overnight: Comfortable Lodge

13-Drive to Windhoek; tour ends
Today we head south and return via Okhandja to Windhoek where the tour ends.

Tour includes:

12 Breakfast
10 Lunch
9 Dinner
Minimum Age:
From 7 years
Transport:
Truck
Accommodation:
1 night Standard Hotel
7 nights Basic Camping
2 nights Standard Lodge
2 nights Comfortable Lodge
Tour Staff:
Driver(s), Explore Tour Leader, Cook
Group Size:
Generally 10 – 16

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