Beyond Adventure Namibia

A small plane lifts you out of Windhoek for the 45-minute hop to Mount Etjo, a private game reserve where the cars are waiting. The first evening covers the fleet, the team and a few simple roadside fixes, then dinner as the sun drops over the bush.

Next morning you take your own Porsche on a self-drive through the reserve, then follow gravel north onto fast tarmac towards Etosha. Before dawn on day four you drive into the park itself – 22,500 square kilometres around a vast white salt pan – and cross it west to Dolomite Camp, where dinner is served among the rock formations.

Into Kaokoland

Day five is 416 km and the hardest yet. The villages thin out, the roads get rougher, and there are stretches that test the car and possibly the driver. It ends at a pool overlooking Purros, a remote desert village in lion country. A day off follows: the clay castles of the Hoarusib riverbed, a Himba village, a guided desert safari or nothing at all, and a sundowner in the dunes as the sand turns deep orange.

The Skeleton Coast

Day seven is only 40 km, but all of it is dune driving, with the support team close by when a car digs in. At the end sits Shipwreck Lodge, in the dunes a few kilometres from the Atlantic. The group convoys out of the sand the next morning, then the format switches to rally style on firmer ground, with driving on the beach itself if the tide allows. A stop at a seal colony, then the route turns sharply east as the scenery and temperature change, into Damaraland and the huge rock formations of Mowani Mountain Camp.

South to Sossusvlei

After a rest day comes the longest drive: 600 km down the Hoanib river to the coast, a swim in a salt lake, then south to Walvis Bay and out along the sand to Pelican Point Lodge, on a peninsula with flamingos on the lagoon and seals on the shore. The next morning starts in soft Atlantic sand and heads into the Namib, to a Beyond Adventure camp in the middle of the dunes, with a campfire and no phone signal.

Two canyon passes, open plains and salt tracks lead on to Little Kulala inside the Namib-Naukluft Park, where you can sleep out under the stars. On the last full day there is an optional dawn balloon flight over the dunes, then short sandy tracks into Sossusvlei, among some of the tallest dunes on earth, and a walk to the dead trees of Deadvlei. Day fourteen is a 379 km drive back to Windhoek, or on to Mount Etjo for a few extra days with the team.

How it works

You drive and navigate yourself, two to a car, with the group together for the hardest sections. An expedition leader, an organiser, a paramedic, one or two mechanics and a local guide where needed travel with you.

The fleet is KALMAR’s own safari-prepared 911s: the RS-6 (996, manual), the RS (993 and 964, manual), the RS-7 (997, manual) and the RS-C, built on a Cayman R. Swapping cars is possible if a rotation works out, and you can bring your own safari Porsche.

Lodges include Andersson’s at Ongava, Dolomite Camp, Okahirongo Elephant Lodge, Shipwreck Lodge, Mowani Mountain Camp, Pelican Point Lodge and Little Kulala, plus one night at the Beyond Adventure camp. All meals, soft drinks, Windhoek airport transfers, Starlink data and the group activities are included. Flights, alcohol and optional activities such as the balloon flight are not.

Is it for you?

This is long, dusty and remote: several days over 350 km, soft sand, and toilets that are not always Western. Wildlife is a big part of the trip, but sightings are never guaranteed. Groups run with 8 to 14 people.