Classic Namibia

Fifteen nights around Namibia, self-guided, 2,370 miles in a 4×4 with mechanical support following.

Sixteen days and almost everything the country has: the canyon in the south, the dunes, the coast, the rock art, three nights at Etosha and a leopard sanctuary. Very little is left out.

Windhoek opens it, then a Kalahari private reserve with an evening safari or quad bikes, and Fish River Canyon, often described as the second largest in the world. Luderitz follows, where the desert horses are sometimes seen, then Sossusvlei by way of Kolmanskop’s sand-filled ghost town, and a night in the Namib among the dunes, with Big Daddy the tallest of them. Swakopmund comes next for two nights with a long optional list, then Palmwag along the Skeleton Coast past the Cape Cross fur seal colony, one of the largest anywhere, and Twyfelfontein’s rock engravings. Etosha takes three nights across the western, central and eastern sections, and the AfriCat sanctuary closes the route with leopard tracking on foot.

The 4×4 double-cab, comprehensive insurance for both drivers and breakdown cover, the airport transfers, twin-share accommodation, breakfast daily and dinner every night but two, and the route books and maps are all included; lunches, fuel, drinks, flights, insurance and the optional game drives are not. The vehicles carry sat nav and a satellite phone for the areas with no signal. The dry season from May to October is the window, when the game concentrates round the waterholes and the gravel roads are at their best. No wildlife sighting can be promised, the leopards and the desert horses least of all. Sixteen days is as complete a Namibian circuit as this database holds.