Namibia – 4-day Swakopmund & Sossusvlei Adventure – Group accommodated

You will be collected from your accommodation within the Windhoek city limits, or the airport by 07:15 and transferred to Chameleon Safaris Head Office for a short pre-departure meeting.

We first drive north via the small town of Okahandja, but soon we head west, past the tiny centres of Karibib and Usakos, to the port town of Walvis Bay, the edge of Africa and the Skeleton Coast.

We complete the final leg of our journey into Swakopmund and we check into our accommodation at the centrally located Hotel A La Mer. Swakopmund offers many opportunities to keep us busy during our time here. The town centre is small and easily explored on foot but there are also many extra, optional activities available. Scenic flights over the desert are very popular, and for the more adventurous, consider trying skydiving or quad biking over and within the Namib dunes. Our guide will discuss all the options with you in advance and will be able to facilitate any bookings that we would like to make.

Dinner tonight is for your own account. Swakopmund boasts some truly excellent restaurants, and again, our guide will be able to help you with recommendations and bookings.

We have the option to have a more leisurely start this morning as we are only leaving Swakopmund in the middle morning. Your guide will  let you know the exact time of departure.

Departing Swakopmund at 11h30, we head east into the desert. We have two mountain passes to traverse this afternoon, the first is the mighty Kuiseb Pass, and we follow the road from the top of the hills, dropping steeply down into the canyon carved over aeons by the Kuiseb River on its way to debouch into the ocean at the port town of Walvis Bay. We climb up from the banks of the river and over the pass, travelling through the mountain peaks and on to the second, smaller canyon of the Gaub River, a tributary of the Kuiseb.

We emerge from the mountains onto a flat road, and almost immediately we cross the Tropic of Capricorn and stop along the road for photos. We aim to arrive at our destination in time for a short walk to see the sun dip below the impressive Naukluft Mountains.

Sunrise in the dunes is the name of the game this morning and that means a pre-dawn start and a very early breakfast. The best time to photograph the dunes is around sunrise and sunset. This is when you can see towering sand dunes illuminated a glowing orange, apricot red on one side and swathed in shadow on the other. The depth of field is amazing at this time of day.

From Sesriem we cover the 60 km into the dunes quickly and we enter the ancient Tsauchab River-bed for the last 5km leg to Sossusvlei itself. There is a 4x4 shuttle service that will transport us through the sandy terrain of the riverbed. We will visit Dead Vlei, an ancient pan completely surrounded by dunes, that is strikingly populated with dead, skeletal camel thorn trees. These trees have been a feature of this landscape for over 1000 years. 

On the drive back, we stop at the iconic Dune 45. Driving back to Sesriem, we take a short excursion to see the Sesriem Canyon.