Namibia Birding Self-Drive Safari

Arrive at Windhoek Airport and collect car. Drive to Olive Grove Guesthouse,  close to the city centre. An optional sumptuous dinner is available and breakfast is included.

Drive to Kalahari Game Lodge.  Check in to your private chalet and enjoy a pre-dinner drink close to the waterhole keeping watch for visiting animals. Dinner and breakfast included. Optional activities include guided nature drives, walks, horse riding and walks with local bushmen.

Drive to Hoodia Desert Lodge overlooking the Tsauchab River where kudu and onyx graze. Accommodation is in comfortable canvas & wood chalets with dinner and breakfast included for two nights. Guided and self-guided walks are available and there are beautiful views from the lodge across the desert.

At leisure. Stay around the lodge and enjoy optional activities or walk along the river. Alternatively, drive from the lodge to the Sesreim Gate and on to Sossusvlei Park to experience the amazing multi-coloured, star-shaped dunes. Visit the Sesreim Canyon on your way back to the lodge.

Drive to the resort town of  Swakopmund for two night stay at the Cornerstone Guesthouse on a B&B basis. Swakopmund is a fascinating town with architecture redolent of its German colonial past. A morning mist gives life to plants and animals up to 30km inland. Lots of interesting walks and drives.

Today, you will explore Walvis Bay on board a luxury catamaran. Sail past a Cape fur seal colony and look out for marine and bird life including orca, whales, flamingos and pelicans. Hope to see especially endemic Heavyside and other dolphins. Enjoy Walvis Bay oysters for lunch!

Today, take a guided tour to Sandwich Harbour passing wetlands with thousands of birds, including avocet, turnstone and flamingo. Continue into the Kuiseb Delta for archaeological sites and magnificent dunes, home to all sorts of secretive wildlife such as springbok, hyena, jackal and ostrich. An unforgettable day.

Drive towards Erongo Wilderness Lodge on the edge of the Erongo Crater for two nights’ dinner and breakfast included. Birding is one of the main attractions here with 48 species seen locally including black eagle, rosy-faced lovebird and Ruppell’s parrot.

Guided walks are included and there are self-guided trails and optional drives into the conservation area. Be sure to take the sundown walk to an amazing viewpoint. The Lodge is known for its sumptuous catering combined with spectacular setting.

Visit the ancient rock etchings and paintings at Twyfelfontein today and then, at sunset drive to Burnt Mountain where the setting sun gives the impression of waves moving over the rock. Don’t miss the Valley of the Organ Pipes just across the road. Stay at Camp Kipwe with dinner and breakfast.

Drive to Palwag for your transfer to guided 4X4 drive through the mountains to Etendeka Mountain Camp for 2 nights fully inclusive. This is part of the old Damaraland and you will look out for the rich variety of wildlife on guided walks and from the camp itself.

All plants and animals in the area are indigenous and you will hope to see the desert adapted black elephant and black rhino, along with reptiles, insects and endemic birds like the Herero chat, Monteiro’s hornbill and Ruppell’s Korhaan. The crystal mountain is also a geologist’s paradise.

Retrieve your car and continue to Ongava Lodge on dinner, bed & breakfast basis. This is in a private concession bordering the Etosha National Park. The lodge has superb views across the plain and wildlife can be seen at the watering hole.

Large concentrations of game congregate around the watering holes during the dry season, including elephant, lion, cheetah, leopard, giraffe and zebra. Ostrich, raptors and other birds such as short-toed rockthrush, Hautlaub’s francolin, white-tailed shrike and chestnut weaves are in abundance. Good chances to see both black and white rhino.

Head to Otjiwarongo on the way back to Windhoek for two nights at Okonjima Plains Camp (dinner and breakfast included).  On the way, call in at REST, where work is done to conserve native species including the Cape Griffon Vulture, spotted rubber frog, Damara dik-dik and dwarf python.

The Okonjima Game Reserve is home to the Africat Foundation, which works with farmers and locals to conserve the big cat species of Namibia. The highlight here is cheetah and leopard safaris, where these animals along with wild dogs, hyenas and leopards, can be seen in their natural environment.

Drive to Windhoek Airport for car drop-off and your onward or return journey.