namibia: desert landscapes journey

The group is capped at seven guests.

You travel in one 4WD with a specialist naturalist guide who stays with you from Windhoek back to Windhoek. With so few people the travelling days run to time, everybody can hear the guide in the field, and the plan can bend: longer with the elephants, or an earlier start for the dunes.

On the Etosha Heights reserve the game drives are in an open vehicle with the reserve's own ranger, and the group has Safari House, a farmhouse beside its own waterhole, to itself. At Sossusvlei, in Swakopmund and at Camp Kipwe you stay in lodges and a hotel shared with other travellers.

Solo travellers are welcome, and pay a single traveller's price rather than the sharing one.

A lot, and it is better to know that before you book.

Namibia's sights lie far apart and most of its roads are gravel, where sensible speeds stay under 80 kilometres an hour. The drives are these:

• Windhoek to Sesriem: around 320 to 350 kilometres, five and a half to seven hours
• Sesriem to Swakopmund: a similar distance and five to six hours, by way of the Gaub and Kuiseb canyons
• Swakopmund to Damaraland: about five hours, passing the Brandberg
• Damaraland to Etosha: four to four and a half hours to the park, then an afternoon at the waterholes before you continue to the reserve
• The last day, from Etosha Heights to Windhoek: about six hours

Each of those days is broken by stops on the way, and the first four are each followed by a full day based in one place, which is why the trip stays two nights everywhere except Windhoek.

There is a good chance of both in the dry months, a lesser one after rain, and never a promise.

Around 150 desert-adapted elephants live across north west Namibia, and the Huab and Aba Huab valleys below Camp Kipwe are part of the range of one monitored population. They are ordinary African elephants that have learned desert habits, not a separate species, and the breeding herds tend to keep in or near the dry riverbeds, where the water and forage are.

That makes the morning drive along those riverbeds a sound plan from about June to October, when the country is dry. After summer rain, roughly December to March, the elephants feed more widely on new grass and are harder to find, and nobody publishes a success rate.

At Etosha Heights both black and white rhino live on the reserve, which is best known for them. You have a morning and an afternoon drive there, so two proper chances.

June, July, August and September are the months we put first at every stop on the route: dry, clear days, animals gathered at Etosha's waterholes and along Damaraland's riverbeds, and cool mornings for the dunes.

Nights are cold then, and these are the busiest dates. May is nearly as good.

April, October and November are in-between months: April is still green, while October and November are hot, though October is when Etosha's waterholes are at their busiest.

December, January and February are the dates we rate as challenging: the desert heat is fierce by mid morning and summer rains spread the game out.

The summer dates do give something back. January and February are the lowest priced dates of the year, the lodges are quiet, a rare desert storm over the dunes is a spectacle, many antelope have young, and if the Etosha pan fills it draws flamingos.

The coast keeps its own cool, often foggy climate all year, so the Swakopmund days are comfortable on any date.

You choose how much to do, and nothing is compulsory.

Big Daddy, the highest dune in the area at about 325 metres, is a real effort: allow one and a half to two hours to climb a ridge of soft sand.

Dune 45 is far lower and gives a fine view for a fraction of the work, and Deadvlei itself needs no climb, only a walk of about twenty minutes across the sand from where the vehicle stops.

What matters most is the clock. By about nine in the morning the sand is too hot for comfort, which is why the group sets out before sunrise. Dead Valley Lodge stands inside the park gate, so you are already on the road to the dunes while visitors staying outside wait for the gate to open at around sunrise.

Carry water, wear a hat, and use the free afternoon to rest, as the itinerary intends.

The guide and vehicle throughout, all park and conservancy fees, and the activities in the itinerary:

• The dunes and Deadvlei
• Sesriem Canyon
• The search for desert elephants
• The rock engravings at Twyfelfontein
• An afternoon inside Etosha National Park
• The game drives on Etosha Heights

You are met at Windhoek airport and driven back to it at the end. At Walvis Bay you choose between the guided kayak trip and a boat cruise to see the seals and dolphins, so nobody has to paddle.

Dead Valley Lodge and Camp Kipwe are full board, and Safari House includes all meals and drinks apart from certain premium ones. Windhoek and Swakopmund are bed and breakfast, so dinners in both towns, and lunches in Swakopmund, are your own. A table is booked for your first evening on the coast.

Not included: tips, the optional sunrise balloon flight, other optional extras such as scenic flights, and any rise in park fees or government charges.