namibia: dunes, the hoanib and the kunene

It is a national park that runs for about 500 kilometres along Namibia's northern shore, from the Ugab River to the Kunene, where the cold Benguela Current meets the desert and throws up dense fog.

The name is usually traced to the whale and seal bones that once littered its beaches, and it stuck after a 1944 book about the wreck of the Dunedin Star.

From Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp the usual plan is to:

• Drive down the dry riverbed to the sea, anything from three to six hours, depending on what you stop for
• Visit the Cape fur seals and the remains of a wreck near Möwe Bay
• Eat lunch on the beach
• Fly back over the dunes

Fog decides the detail: the camp chooses between flying and driving on the day, and the flight back goes only if the fog allows. The camp includes the outing only in stays of three nights or more, so the Hoanib gets three here.

Elephants are a fair expectation in the dry months, and lions are a bonus.

The Hoanib is one of five dry river systems that hold north-west Namibia's desert-adapted elephants, about 150 animals in all. They are savannah elephants that have learned to live here, able to go up to three days without drinking, and the family herds keep close to the riverbed, which is exactly where the camp's drives go.

Elephants move through the Hoanib seasonally, so there are quiet spells, most often after rain, when the herds spread out to feed on new grass.

Desert-adapted lions are the sighting people hope for most and the hardest to get: they are few, and they cover great distances, some as far as the beaches, where they have been recorded feeding on seals. There are no official figures, so be wary of any percentage you are quoted.

Most of this route is flown, and two of its camps, on the Hoanib and at Serra Cafema, can be reached no other way.

The aircraft are small: typically a Cessna Grand Caravan, which seats up to 12, or a five-seat Cessna 210, which is quicker over Namibia's long sectors. A flight can call at another airstrip on the way, so think of it as a bush shuttle more than a point-to-point service.

The luggage rule is strict because it comes down to weight and the size of the hold: 20 kilograms a person, with hand luggage and camera equipment counted in, packed in a soft duffel with no frame or rigid parts, no bigger than 30 by 35 by 70 centimetres. Hard suitcases are refused.

If you need more, for camera kit say, tell us early and we can ask for an extra luggage allowance, which is charged for, or arrange a private charter.

Possibly, and it depends on them, not on the camp.

The Himba are semi-nomadic herders who live across Namibia's Kunene Region and over the river in southern Angola, and families move with their cattle and goats as grazing allows.

Serra Cafema stands inside a conservancy owned by the Himba, and when a family is living within reach the camp arranges a visit to the homestead, a ring of huts and shelters around a sacred fire and a livestock enclosure. Not every stay includes one, because it depends on where the community is at the time.

You may well see Himba women collecting water on the Angolan bank in any case. If a visit does happen, go to listen as much as to look, and ask your guide before taking photographs.

Ongava is a private reserve of about 30,000 hectares on Etosha's southern edge that holds both white and black rhino, and the white rhino are the ones you walk to.

They are grazers that feed on open grass and often keep together in small groups, which suits an approach on foot. After a safety briefing you leave the vehicle and walk in single file behind an armed guide, slowly and quietly, because a rhino sees poorly but hears and smells very well.

White rhino are found regularly on the reserve, though never to order. Black rhino are another matter: they browse in thicker bush, are often alone and do most of their feeding and drinking after dark, so the floodlit waterhole below the villas is where they are most often seen.

The reserve sets minimum ages for walking and for rhino tracking, so tell us the ages of any children when you enquire.

Come between June and September if you can.

Every stop from Sossusvlei to Etosha carries our top rating in those months, with dawn at the dunes still cool, elephants held to the Hoanib riverbed and animals crowding Etosha's waterholes. Desert nights in July and August can fall below freezing, so pack for winter as well as for sun.

May runs those months close and is quieter. October is clear but hot, most of all at Etosha, though its waterholes are then at their busiest.

From December to February we rate most of the route as challenging, and the Kunene through March as well: heat at the dunes by mid morning, storms that spread Etosha's game across the park, and the Kunene valley at its hottest.

In return the camps are quiet, the desert can turn briefly green, Etosha's pan sometimes fills and draws flamingos, it is calving time for the antelope, and the coast stays cool throughout.