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Exploring Namibia: Tribal and Wilderness Safari Day 1 - Arrival Arrival at the Windhoek International airport. You will be met by a representative and transferred to your hotel. In the afternoon, enjoy a tour of the city.
Olive Grove Guest House is a small, up-market establishment, situated close to the Windhoek city center in a quiet, peaceful area. The inside lounge is tastefully decorated, with comfortable chairs and a fireplace for relaxing. The stunning open-plan kitchen creates a homey feel and provides tasty meals. The private garden and plunge pool offer spectacular views over the olive tree plantation and Windhoek Mountains and provide a private hide-away.
Frans Indongo Lodge is situated in the heart of a 17.000 ha (170 km²) farm in the bush savannah, northeast of Otjiwarongo and northwest of Waterberg Mountain. It is ideally suited as a stopover on your way from Windhoek to Etosha, the far north, to Bushmanland or the Caprivi. The main complex is modeled on traditional Ovambo homesteads.
Palisades of tall pointed stakes embrace the lodge and convey a feeling of the warmth and security of home right in the middle of the African bush. The lush, green garden is shaded by tall trees and sports an artificial brook. The gourmet kitchen whips up a variety of venison dishes served with farm-fresh vegetables and salads seasoned with aromatic ingredients from the herb garden.
 Exploring Namibia: Tribal and Wilderness Safari Day 10 - Depart for Swakopmund. Possible visit to the Topnaar tribe. Swakopmund is much loved because of its old-world charm and relaxed atmosphere. Founded in 1892 during the period of German colonial rule, it served as the territory's main harbor for many years.
Today's lush green lawns, palm trees, and carefully tended and colorful public gardens enhance this curious desert town, hedged by desert and sea. Swakopmund has several excellent restaurants, pubs and discos, and a few nightclubs. A special feature of the town is its jewelry shops, which offer pieces ranging from contemporary African to continental designs. Art and craft shops offer local products, while street vendors sell Namibian rural art.
Swakopmund Guest House is situated in the town center, a mere five-minute walk from the beach and main shopping area. The Swakopmund Guesthouse is run with an eco-friendly approach, making use of solar energy.
On your morning cruise, you may meet with pelicans, feed seals, and if luck permits, watch leaping dolphins and shy turtles. The cruise departs from the Walvis Bay Yacht club and continues into the beautiful Bay area. You'll see a shipwreck, lighthouse, oyster platforms, various bird species, seals and more marine life. The catamarans will move along side the oyster platforms, and you'll be treated to an lesson on cultivated oysters, along with a tasting of these delecacies!
The catamarans will then proceed to the ever-growing Pelican Point to have a closer look at the lighthouse. Around the Point, three different types of dolphins may be spotted. The primary species is the Heaviside Dolphins, which are the only endemic dolphins along the Namibian Coast. On occasion, the Dusky and Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins species can also be spotted. In season, larger mammals like the Southern Right Whale and the Humpback Whales may be seen, and with a bit of extra special luck, the mighty Killer Whales (Orcas). Sightings of the Mola Mola (Sunfish) and the Leatherback Turtles will also keep you on the look out.
Exploring Namibia: Tribal and Wilderness Safari Days 7 & 8 - Depart for Filmhouse. Himba village visit. This unusual house in the northwest of Namibia was built on the cattle farm of Mr. Burger in 2004 as a set for the movie “The Trail”/“La Piste”. Since then, the Burger Family has renovated and revamped this magical house into an overnight experience for travelers. This is not your typical lodge and is definitely for the more adventurous!
There is no electricity; light in the evening is provided by paraffin lamps, bamboo torches and candles, which create a surreal and magical ambience. It is the perfect location for honeymooners. Situated about 20 km outside of town on a family farm, a visit to a Himba village will give you in-depth insight into the life and ways of the last traditional tribe in Namibia. This is a chance to explore their milking ceremony and smoke bath and learn of their beliefs about the holy fire, ancestors, and herbal medicine. Follow how tribal jewelry and hairstyles reflect the status of each tribe member and their close relationship with nature, their cattle, and children.
The village was started when Jaco, an Afrikaans-speaking white male, was adopted into the Himba Culture by an old chief, Tjsikume Bhahona, who lives in the mountains at Ongkongo near Opuwo. He has lived with his Himba family for several years and speaks the language fluently. When he decided to return to the farm where he still had herds of Nguni cattle, goats, and some sheep, Chief Tjsikume asked Jaco if some of his people could come live on the farm to help him look after his goats and cattle. Part of the family then moved to the farm and built a traditional village to stay true to their culture. Since then Jaco has adopted 28 children from poor and alcoholic families who were unable to provide for their children, and also of mothers that died due to birth complications. He currently sends five of these children to the Kamanjab Combined School, and the village supports their school and hostel fees. The income generated from these excursions helps to sustain the tribe from day to day, buying food and supplies, medicine, and blankets for the winter. You will be allowed inside these amazing homes for a cultural exchange that will help preserve their culture, traditions, and day-to-day existence.
Kipwe', meaning blessed in Swahili, is built creatively into the large granite boulders, facing out onto superb scenery. The 9 rooms are round in shape with large outside decks. The outside, particularly open bathrooms adjoining the bedrooms have boulder, cement and rock walls, and roofs of rough Mopani branches. Hot water is supplied by wood-burning 'donkey' boilers. The main area is raised and consists of 4 thatched domes; the reception area and curio shop, dining room, lounge and bar and guest toilets all with amazing views toward the Aba Huab Riverbed.
An outside boma area is also available for fire-cooked meals. A small rock pool and a viewpoint with 360 degrees of breathtaking beauty, are two attractive outdoor features. Activities at the camp include nature drives with the possibility if seeing the desert adapted elephant in the dry season, Twyfelfontein excursions to ancient rock engravings and guided walks in front of the camp with Kipwe's experienced guides.
Exploring Namibia: Tribal and Wilderness Safari Days 12 & 13 - Swakopmund and fight to Dunes Lodge After some quality time in Swakopmund, your guide will drop you off at the Swakopmund airport. Meet your pilot and commence on your flight at 14h15. This flight will take you over the impressive Namib Sandsea covering an area of approximately 34 000km2.
The Dunes Lodge is perched on top of a dune plateau, overlooking panoramic vistas in all directions and capturing the beauty of the desert in a most memorable way. Building style is a combination of wooden structures and canvas blinds, opening up to the desert beyond. The lodge reflects the ambience of a tented camp, but provides the comfort and protection of a permanent building. Each of the nine spacious chalets with en-suite bathrooms sports a private verandah, which connects you to vast stretches of untouched sand. Sleeping with your canvas blinds open is just like sleeping under the stars.
Each morning, awake to enjoy coffee/tea on your private verandah, with an unequalled view of the beauty around you before a delicious breakfast in the early morning sunshine. Then board the LandRover and experience the unique NamibRand Nature Reserve landscape during a morning and afternoon excursion by Landrover through the dunes, endless grassy plains and along mystical mountain formations. You will encounter large and small desert animals, learn about their unique habits and explore the ancient hunting spots of the Bushmen. Absorb the incredible landscape around you and Wolwedans’ commitment to care for guest and nature alike. Here in this land of stretching blue skies, endless plains and countless creatures enacting nature’s savagely exciting passion play, you will find beauty feeding your soul, tranquility to clear your mind and space for your imagination to fly.
Exploring Namibia: Tribal and Wilderness Safari Days 3 & 4 - Drive to Nhoma Camp. Participate in Bushman community activities. Nhoma Safari Camp is a small activity-oriented, luxury, tented camp, situated 80 km from Tsumkwe and 280 km from Grootfontein. The camp is situated on a dune vegetated with Zambezi teak trees with a 180 degree view over the Nhoma omuramba (fossil river bed). It is adjacent to the Ju/'hoan Bushman/San village by the name of //nhoq’ma, on whose culture the activities are based, and only 60 km, or a one-and-a-half hour drive on 4WD track, from the Khaudum National Park.
The //nhoq'ma community, of about 50 adults and 100 children, has earned between N$60,000 and N$140,000 per year since 2000 from cultural activities, as well as accommodation in the camp, allowing them to buy food and supplies not provided by the surrounding environment. Without tourism, the community would have left their ancestral land and moved to settled areas such as Tsumkwe where alcoholism is rife. Nhoma Safari Camp offers an intensive and authentic Ju/'hoan Bushman/San experience due to the limited number of visitors, the location of the camp next to the village, the wilderness area surrounding the camp, the spontaneity of the community, and the fact that each day's activities are not set, but based on where the hunters want to go and search for food that day. Guided activities are centered around the community’s normal day to day activities: hunting with the hunters, gathering veld food, medicinal plants, traditional games and participating in healing or trance dances.
The Onguma Game Reserve borders Etosha National Park and is situated next to the von Lindequist gate, which is the eastern entrance to the park. The Onguma reserve covers an area of 20,000ha and incorporates ecological substrata such as savannah, bushveld, omuramba and dry pan. Age-old and well-worn migration routes, once used by elephant and buffalo wander through Onguma’s three dry riverbeds. Onguma Reserve boasts over thirty different animal species. Plains game roam freely and predators, although not easy to spot, are nevertheless common residents of the area.
Onguma is also part of an innovative custodianship project relating to the black rhino. Six black rhino were darted in Etosha National Park and relocated to the reserve where they are protected and monitored. The joyful news is that the first calf was born on Onguma in October 2002. More than 300 bird species can be viewed at Onguma, and the Reserve boasts the biggest breeding colony of white-backed vultures in Namibia. During the summer months, Onguma becomes a bird-watcher’s paradise with thousands of species migrating to wetlands created by the seasonal rains and ephemeral river systems. This part of Namibia has been identified as one of the key bird watching sites in Southern Africa. In the local Herero language, Onguma means "the place you don't want to leave."
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