Selfdrive through Namibia

After arrival at the airport of Windhoek, pick up your rental car (Europcar category R, or similar) and drive to your accommodation in Windhoek. You will immediately notice that the roads are much quieter than we are used to in the Netherlands. Even driving in the capital is a lot easier! Keep in mind that there is a left-hand drive in Namibia. Click here for more information about driving in Namibia.

You stay one night at The Utopia Boutique Hotel, situated in Klein Windhoek.

You can explore the city on your own. We recommend having a drink during sunset in the Sky Bar of the Hilton Hotel in the center of Windhoek.

You spend the night in an ‘oasis’ in the desert, namely the beautiful Kalahari Anib Lodge. From the lodge you can book a fantastic sundowner drive. You drive to a beautiful place in the desert and enjoy a drink and the beautiful sunset.

Again a long drive today. From the desert you drive all the way to the south of the country, to the spectacular Fish River Canyon! This is the second largest canyon in the world; only the Grand Canyon in the USA is bigger. The gap is no less than 160 km long, maximum 27 km wide and 550 meters deep! The viewpoints at Hobas are great for a day trip. Enjoy the view of the deep abysses.

The next two nights you will stay in the Canyon Lodge, located about 20 km from the Fish River Canyon. Make a short walk around the lodge here. You hear nothing at all here, with the exception of a fly and / or a bird every now and then! What an experience!

On unpaved roads you drive to the land of wild horses! The accommodation where you are staying the next night is called very appropriate Desert Horse Inn, named after the wild desert horses that live in the area west of Aus. These horses were probably originally from the German army during the First World War. A group of 10,000 soldiers and around 6,000 horses were stationed in Garub. According to sources, a bomb was fired near a group of 1,700 horses and many of them were not recovered and this is possibly the beginning of the desert horses as we can see them today. The horses have adapted perfectly to life in the desert and can live without water for 5 days!

From Aus you can also easily visit the ghost town of Kolmanskop and the coastal town of Lüderitz.

Again a long drive to one of the highlights of Namibia: Sossusvlei. Make sure you have a full tank, enough water and something to eat if you drive via the D 0707, a beautiful desolate route, towards Sossusvlei.

Sossusvlei is one of the most famous tourist attractions of Namibia. This is an area surrounded by red sand dunes. The most special is the Deadvlei, where dead acacia trees stand out beautifully against the white salt bottom and the red sand dunes. To get to Sossusvlei and Deadvlei, take the entrance at Sesriem. From here it is a 60 km drive on an asphalt road to the parking at Sossusvlei. From there you can continue with a 4×4 shuttle. The last part you can absolutely not drive with your own car, unless you have rented a 4×4 car and have experience driving through loose sand.

You stay two nights in the Sossusvlei Lodge,

You don’t expect that, right in the middle of the desert! Here you also drive over the Capricorn Tropic (Tropic or Capricorn). Fortunately, a sign has been placed, because of course there is nothing to notice in the desert. But always nice for a photo stop!

Next destination: Swakopmund. A modern coastal town with German influences. If you want to know more about the history of this place and the area, you can visit the Swakopmund Museum.

The name Swakopmund refers to the mouth of the Swakop River that flows here into the Atlantic Ocean. Swakopmund is for Namibians and also for many South Africans a popular destination for the summer holidays (December-January) due to the climate. In the interior it is very hot everywhere while it is pleasant in Swakopmund because of the Benguela stream, which supplies water from the South Pole.Because of this cold current the water of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast remains cold and therefore not everyone will take a dip in the water during a beach day.

Walvisbaai,

You stay two nights in The Delight Swakopmund.

Nowhere else in the world can you find as many petroglyphs as in Twyfelfontein, namely more than 2,500 in this region! These rock drawings are approximately between 2,000 and 6,000 years old. Since 2007, Twyfelfontein is even on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Close to the rock drawings are a number of strange rock formations: the organ pipes. These originated 120 million years ago from volcanic rock. On the C39 road near Khorixas you will pass the Petrified Forest, the petrified forest. A guide can lead you past a number of large petrified tree trunks that were driven from Namibia to central Africa during the ice age. The trees are more than 250 million years old and some have a length of up to 30 meters. Your overnight address, Damara Mopane Lodge,is not far from here.

In Damaraland you have the chance to see the desert elephant, which of course is an ordinary elephant, but one that has adapted to special living conditions in the dry desert.

Etosha National Park is one of the largest and most famous game parks in southern Africa and consists for the most part of savannah with different grasses, trees and shrubs.

About 114 different species of animals live in the wildlife park, including different birds, reptiles and amphibians. In this park you have the chance to see elephants, white and black rhinos, lions, zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, leopards, cheetahs, impalas, kudu, to encounter jackals and eland.Watering places are generally good places to spot wildlife, but bear in mind that not all watering places in the park contain water all year round.

Etosha means “large white spot” and this refers to the salt pan that occupies around 25% of the park. The salt pan is so large that it can even be seen from space. The Kunune River once flowed into this place, but thousands of years ago the flow of the river changed and the lake slowly dried up.

The paths in Etosha are easy to walk on with a normal car; there is a (gravel) road network that leads to the camps and the various water places. Despite the good condition of the roads, sharp stones sometimes cause a flat tire. Please note that the gates of the park open at sunrise and close at sunset.

Etosha can be visited all year round for safaris, but the months of May to September are the best and the temperatures are more pleasant (18-25 degrees during the day, towards freezing at night). The hottest and wettest months are January to March.

Your first two nights in the Etosha National Park will be in the Okaukuejo Rest Camp that is dominated by a castle-like water tower, from where you have a beautiful view over the vast surroundings. From Okaukuejo you can easily explore the southwestern part of the park, including the Sprokies forest, or the peculiar Moringa ovafolia “upside down trees”.

You spend the third night in the central location Halali Rest Camp.

The last destination before you fly back home is the Waterberg Plateau National Park. The biggest attraction here is the ‘table mountain’ of no less than 50 km long, 16 km wide and 200 meters high! Also live here no less than 200 different bird species, the rare sable antelope, buffalo and black and white rhinos.

You spend the night in Waterberg Resort, located on the edge of the park. You can go for a walk or on a game drive.

The end of your journey is in sight. Today you drive back to the airport at Windhoek and return your car. Then you fly back home.