Namibia Complete

Nights

11

Party

2–4 guests

Countries

South Africa · Namibia

From

US$ 36,250 per person, based on four guests sharing, including private aircraftExcludes international flights to and from Africa.

Best season

May–Oct

Namibia only really makes sense from the air, and this journey uses the aircraft to read it from south to north. Two nights in Cape Town first, at Ellerman House above Bantry Bay. Then across the border to the dunes of the NamibRand, up the Skeleton Coast at low altitude to the Hoanib, where elephants live without permanent water, into Damaraland for rock engravings some six thousand years old, and finally to the edge of Etosha, where black rhino come to drink after dark. Five places in eleven nights, and for long stretches of every day the only people you see are your own party.

Highlights

• Flying the Skeleton Coast
• Dead Vlei at dawn
• Desert-adapted elephant on foot
• Twyfelfontein rock art
• Tracking black rhino on foot
• Penguins at Boulders Beach

1. Day 1–2

   Cape Town · Ellerman House (2 nights)

   You start at Ellerman House in Bantry Bay, with the Atlantic below the terrace. The first evening is eleven courses at La Colombe, up in the forest at Constantia Nek. Next morning you are at the penguin colony at Boulders Beach before it opens to the public, then on to the Cape of Good Hope ahead of the tour buses, with the baboons for company. Dinner that night is FYN in the City Bowl, ten courses that move between Cape Malay, Japanese and South African cooking.

2. Day 3–4

   Cape Town → &Beyond Sossusvlei Desert Lodge (2 nights)

   Your Pilatus PC-12 flies north, stops at Walvis Bay to clear you into Namibia, and goes on to the private strip in the NamibRand. The pilot makes a low pass first to move the oryx and springbok off. That evening an astronomer guide takes you through the sky over the International Dark Sky Reserve. On the second morning you leave before dawn, climb Big Daddy in the dark and reach the top as the sun comes onto Dead Vlei below.

3. Day 5–7

   Sossusvlei → Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp (3 nights)

   The Cessna Caravan flies north up the coast at low level over the Skeleton Coast National Park. Look out for the shipwrecks half buried in sand, the seal colonies packed along the shore and the fog rolling in off the cold Atlantic. Then inland to Hoanib's remote strip. Three nights in the Kaokoveld, walking the dry riverbed with your guide to track the desert-adapted elephants, a relict population that gets by here without permanent water.

4. Day 8–9

   Hoanib → Damaraland Camp (2 nights)

   A short Caravan hop south to Damaraland and a desert camp run with the local community conservancy. You go to Twyfelfontein, the UNESCO rock art site, with a guide of San descent who reads the engravings for you: animals, spoor and people, some of them around six thousand years old. The rest of the time is for the landscape, red rock and long open plains.

5. Day 10–11

   Damaraland → Ongava Lodge (2 nights)

   The Caravan takes you east to the Ongava Reserve on Etosha's southern boundary. Here you walk with your guide to track black rhino on foot on private land. One night, stay up for the waterhole vigil. Around midnight black rhino, lion and elephant come down under the floodlight to drink, one after another.

6. Day 12

   Ongava → departure

   The PC-12 flies you from the Ongava strip to Windhoek for your international flight, or on to Johannesburg or Cape Town if your connection leaves from there.

Flown by turboprop. How we choose the aircraft