namibia: luxury desert safari

It depends heavily on the season, and even in the best months it is a search, not a certainty.

Only around 150 desert-adapted elephants survive in the whole of north-west Namibia, strung out along a few dry rivers, the Ugab and the Huab among them, so this is a search and not a drive to a waterhole.

Two things tilt it your way. The family herds, led by the females, move in smaller and more predictable patterns than the bulls and seldom stray far from the riverbeds. And on this private concession your guide can leave the track and follow fresh spoor across country.

Through the dry winter, roughly June to October, that is where they are. Once the summer rains bring fresh grass they range more widely, and finding them takes longer. Two nights gives you one full day and the edges of two more, so come hoping, not expecting.

Both species are possible, in different ways.

Etosha holds the largest population of black rhino in the world, and because black rhino feed and drink mainly at night, the usual way to see one is at a waterhole after dark.

Ongava, the private reserve beside the park's southern gate, has white rhino as well as black. Its white rhino, grazers that feed in the open by day, are the ones guests approach on foot with an armed guide.

The two places run on different rules. In the national park you stay in the vehicle, keep to the roads and leave by sunset, when the gates close. On Ongava the day carries on: drives after dark, walks, and at Anderssons a sunken hide where animals drink a few metres away.

No sighting is certain, but three nights with both day and night access gives you a good chance of rhino.

No. The outfits that run these trips say you need neither experience nor particular fitness, and they use stable double kayaks, so a nervous paddler can share with a confident one.

A typical morning begins at about eight at the waterfront in Walvis Bay, the neighbouring harbour town, whose bay is sheltered by the Pelican Point sand spit. A 4x4 takes you round the lagoon, past the pink salt pans, and out along the spit to the seal colony, which can take up to an hour, and you are back by lunchtime.

Time on the water is usually about an hour, depending on the weather. The seals do the rest: they are relaxed around kayaks and naturally inquisitive, so they tend to come to you.

This is a cold, often foggy coast, so dress warmly whatever the forecast inland. If paddling does not appeal, tell us and we will arrange a boat trip on the bay instead.

Early, but nobody has to climb anything.

Hoodia lies outside the national park, about 20 minutes' drive from the Sesriem gate, and that gate opens at sunrise, so you leave the lodge before dawn to be there when it does. Beyond it lie some 60 kilometres of tar road down the Tsauchab valley, then a final five kilometres of deep sand that needs a 4x4.

From the parking place Deadvlei is a good kilometre on foot across low, shadeless dunes, and that walk is all the pan asks of you.

Climbing is a choice. Big Daddy, at roughly 325 metres, takes one and a half to two hours of soft sand on the way up and a ten-minute run to come down; smaller dunes beside the road give a good view for much less effort. After about nine the sand scorches, so the dunes are done first.

For most people, June to September.

Each stop on the route gets our top rating then, because dry weather gathers Etosha's animals at the waterholes, keeps Damaraland's elephants to the riverbeds and makes dawn at the dunes cool. Expect cold nights and the year's busiest lodges.

May runs them close, and April is still green, a month often praised for clear air after the rains. October and November turn hot, although Etosha's waterholes are crowded with game in October.

The green season we rate as challenging, from December to February at the dunes and Etosha and on to March in Damaraland, because of heat and rain that lets the animals scatter.

The honest case for it is this:

• Far fewer visitors
• A desert flushed green under storm skies
• Breeding birds in full colour
• Newborn antelope on Etosha's plains
• Flamingos if the pan fills
• A coast at its warmest and least foggy

It suits a second visit better than a first safari.

A great deal, and yes, you could.

This sample route uses light aircraft for the long legs, and the distances by road show why:

• Windhoek to Sesriem, 320 to 350 kilometres: between five and a half and seven hours at the wheel
• On to Swakopmund: another five to six hours
• Swakopmund to the Twyfelfontein area: about five hours
• Damaraland to Etosha's southern side: four to four and a half hours
• Etosha back to Windhoek: around five hours

Long stretches are gravel, and the Foreign Office advises keeping below 80 kilometres an hour on it. Flying turns the same legs into short hops and gives the hours back to the desert.

The trade-off is luggage: the aircraft are typically a Cessna 210 or a Grand Caravan, and the allowance is 20 kilograms each, hand luggage counted in, with soft bags only. Driving with a private guide suits those who want to see the country in between.