Epic Sossusvlei & Swakopmund – Accommodated Tour

Pre-day arrival in Windhoek city is advised. At 8h30 AM, you will be picked up by your guide, we leave Windhoek and we then head south via a small town of the Basters (Rehoboth).

The main inhabitants of the town are the Baster Community the descendants of people of mixed parentage who trekked across the Orange River under their leader Hermanus van Wyk and settled at Rehoboth in 1870.

The town is divided into 7 neighborhoods, called blocks. We stop at Solitaire, Namibia’s second smallest town, for afternoon tea or lunch before driving on to our accommodation near the sand dune sea.

A pre-dawn start is essential this morning as we want to catch the soft light of the sunrise on the desert as we drive in. We will arrive at the entrance to the dunes on sunrise and then travel through the dune field as the sun is coming up. The light casts strong contrasts of colour on the edges of the dunes and offers stunning views from the dry river bed you travel through.

From here we drive another 60 km to Sossusvlei itself, transferring to special desert vehicles for the last 5 km through the dunes. The drive is like nothing else, enjoying the changing light and coolness of the morning. Ancient mineral pans, stunted camel thorn trees and the chance of seeing a gemsbok or maybe an ostrich make the photo opportunities perfect.

We spend the morning in and around Sossusvlei, also visiting dune 45″, and as the day wears on we return to Sesriem for lunch and to escape the heat of the afternoon. As the day cools off in the late afternoon we will take a short excursion to the Sesriem Canyon then we return to our place of stay.

An early start today, we are heading north-west to the seaside town of Swakopmund located on the Skeleton Coast. Leaving the dune fields far behind us we are soon back into the mountain desert. We cross the Tropic of Capricorn and traverse both the Gaub and the Kuiseb pass, driving down to the dry river bed at the bottom of the canyon before climbing up the other side, watching the spectacular desert landscape unfold before us.

From the mountains we cross the desolate Namib gravel plains before reaching the coastal sand dunes at the port town of Walvis Bay. We will stop for a picnic lunch beside the ocean and there will be time to see the flamingos and other bird life in the Walvis Bay lagoon before continuing the now short drive into Swakopmund.

Today is a free day. The idea is to allow time for everybody to do their own thing. Swakopmund is a very pleasant seaside town with lots of shops, a good stretch of beach (although the Atlantic here is quite cold) and an open-air curio market. There is also a very good museum and the Namibian National Marine Aquarium is located in Swakopmund.

Alternatively, there are various optional activities that can be arranged. These include airplane and microlight flights over the desert, scenic drives, fishing trips (both from the beach or in a boat), four-wheel motorcycle (quad bike) trips into the desert and over the sand dunes around Swakopmund, sand boarding trips (also in the dunes), skydiving, surfing, bird-watching and many other activities are available. Your tour guide will discuss all the possible options with you before you reach Swakopmund and will offer to make bookings in advance of your arrival.

Travelling through the ancient, long dried up Swakopmund Delta; we first stop at the Moon Landscape an unusual example of water erosion in the desert. From here we continue to the Swakopmund Valley itself to hunt the giant Welwitschia Mirabilis plants. This plant is, in fact, a species of tree and is one of the rarest fauna species in the world. We will see examples that are reported to be in excess of 1500 years old.