Etosha & Swakopmund
Accommodated Adventure

Day 1: Tuesday Windhoek – Etosha National Park – 500 km
You will be collected from your accommodation within the Windhoek city limits at 07:00 and transferred to Chameleon Headquarters for a short pre-departure meeting.

Heading north from Windhoek, we stop briefly at the small town of Otjiwarongo to gather some last-minute supplies before continuing to Etosha, and we enjoy a light lunch pack whilst “on the move”. We enter Etosha National Park and embark on a game drive to our overnight accommodation.
Etosha is huge, spanning just over 22,000 square kilometres and home to 114 species of mammal, 350 species of bird, 110 species of reptile, countless numbers of insects, and, somewhat bizarrely, one species of fish. There are good chances of spotting many of these different creatures as we tour through the park, stopping at the various waterholes along the way.
All visitors must be in camp by sunset. We aim to arrive at our lodge before sunset, allowing time to settle into our rooms, which feature en-suite bathrooms. Dinner is at the camp restaurant tonight.

The ‘game show’ in Etosha doesn’t stop when the sun goes down. All the Etosha camps have floodlit waterholes for extra game viewing opportunities. The waterhole is located near our accommodation. A visit, or two, is highly recommended this evening, as we can expect many species to visit during the night. This waterhole is renowned for its popularity with elephants and the critically endangered black rhino.

Accommodation: Twin share, en-suite bathroom ( Okaukeujo or Halali Resort inside the park)
Meals: Lunch, Dinner

Day 2: Wednesday Etosha-Accommodation near Anderson gate – 70 km
We have the whole day to explore Etosha in an open game viewer, and we want to make the most of it. We enjoy an early breakfast and then start our day.. Early morning is usually a productive time for game viewing, and first thing in the morning is a good time to catch big cats returning from the hunt.

Etosha is a desert landscape, and water is the most scarce natural resource. There are, however, numerous waterholes here, both natural and man-made, and our game-driving technique is to take in as many of these as possible. Here, we hope that the game will come to us as thirsty animals come for a much-needed drink.

On our way today, we will stop to have a closer look at the Etosha Pan. The name Etosha translates as ‘great white space’, but this name does not do justice to the immensity of the pan. Over 4,700 square km of dazzling white mineral pan, so big that it can be seen from space.

We exit Etosha at the Anderson gate, close to sunset, and it is just a short drive to our accommodation, which features a comfortable, spacious twin-share room with modern en-suite bathroom facilities. An ideal space to sit back, relax and enjoy the beauty that surrounds you. A fantastic dinner tonight.

Accommodation: Twin share, en-suite bathroom ( Etosha Village, Etosha Okutala Lodge)
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 3: Thursday Etosha – Swakopmund, Hotel A La Mer – 510 km
After breakfast, we aim to be on the road by 7:30 this morning. We are heading for the Skeleton Coast, and we are taking the scenic route. We first head south on the main road, passing the small town of Outjo, and then continue west, picking up the gravel road as we travel through the area known as Damaraland.

Damaraland is renowned for its stunning scenery, majestic mountains, vast open grasslands, and tall koppies (small hills) of rounded pink granite boulders, as well as its expansive landscapes and vast blue skies. We also have the opportunity to meet some of the locals, as there are several places along our route today where we can find informal shops selling locally made, handcrafted souvenirs. Represented here are ladies from the Himba, Herero, and Damara tribes, and most often, they are wearing their traditional attire. Here we can interact with some of the colourful local characters who live in this harsh environment. Making a small purchase here is a good way to inject some cash directly into the local economy.

We continue through the beautiful landscape, making a stop for a light picnic lunch, under the shadow of Namibia’s highest mountain, the Brandberg. Rising from the desert floor, this giant monolith is 2,573 m above sea level and is formed of pink-tinged granite. We continue our journey west and soon arrive at the coast and the chilly Atlantic Ocean. The whole coastline of Namibia is known as the Skeleton Coast, and it is easy to see why this barren seaboard is so named, with its forbidding mountains and barren beaches. The wind, the waves and the huge fog banks all conspire to push ships onto the beach. The countless mariners who, in olden times, found themselves shipwrecked here faced the stark prospect of no fresh water, no food, no rescue and a slow death by exposure. Their Shipmates who went down with their ship were thought to be the lucky ones.

Heading south on the coast road, our next stop is a more recent shipwreck. 15 km south of the small town of Henties Bay, a fishing trawler, The Zeila, was beached in 2008. She was an old vessel that had been sold for scrap and was under tow at the time. The cable snapped, and, like so many ships before her, she was caught in the swell and currents and ended up stranded. She lies pretty close to the shore and is well-positioned for photos.

We complete the final leg of our journey to Swakopmund, check into our accommodation, the centrally located A La Mer hotel, and the town is easily explored on foot from our central location. Swakopmund was founded by Captain Kurt von François of the German Empire’s imperial colonial army in 1892. (He also founded Windhoek in 1890). It is an interesting town to say the least, bounded to the north, the east and the south by the mighty dunes of the Namib Desert and to the west by the Atlantic Ocean. There are still many examples of colonial German architecture to be seen, and the German language remains widely spoken.
Swakopmund boasts some truly excellent restaurants, and again, your guide will be able to provide recommendations and assist with bookings.

Accommodation: Twin share, en-suite bathroom
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Day 4: Friday Swakopmund – Walvis Bay – Swakopmund – Windhoek – 420 km
We have a more leisurely start this morning, and a lie-in, a big breakfast and a wander around town are the order of the day. There are some great curio shops, excellent bookstores, and an authentic café culture is thriving here, with plenty of small eateries serving delicious food. Later in the morning, we visit the Walvis Bay lagoon.

Just 40 km along the coast to the south, Walvis Bay (Whale Bay) lagoon is an internationally recognised Ramsar site (Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat). It is justly renowned for its birdlife, particularly flamingos, which are usually abundant and can be found within easy photographic distance from the shore.
There are two types of flamingo to see, lessor and greater, and they accumulate here because Namibia’s Atlantic coast is abundant with both phytoplankton and zooplankton. Flamingos do not enjoy a solid diet; they live on microorganisms such as plankton, and they are filter feeders, much like oysters. They rinse the seawater through their beaks, and tiny filaments filter out the nutrients as it swishes by. Flamingos are unable to eat unless their heads are fully inverted, and, while feeding, they walk around in a circle, stirring the sand and mud with their feet to release the nutrients. Certain types of these microorganisms turn reddish-pink when they die, which accounts for the pink colour of the birds.

Flamingos do not breed in Walvis Bay. The tides here are not usually very steep, but occasional spring tides can bring deeper waters, and this is not suitable for the specialised nest constructed by the birds. Flamingos build a nest, called a cone, out of sand and mud, which has a hollow top into which they lay a single egg. This cone is designed to keep the egg out of the water, and so a tidal environment does not work. Instead, huge flocks of birds typically head for the Etosha Pan or the Makgadikgadi Pan in Botswana for breeding. Both these mineral pans are seasonal and are usually dry, but can flood when there is sufficient rain. It is still not fully understood how flamingos determine when there has been suitable rainfall in these relatively distant catchment areas. Still, somehow they do know, and they leave the coast in great flocks that streak the horizon pink as they head inland.

Heading back to Swakopmund, we then take the main tar road back to Windhoek. We will have a light lunch en route, and upon arrival in Windhoek, you will be dropped off at your accommodation, located anywhere within the Windhoek city limits.

Accommodation: None
Meals: Breakfast & lunch