Depart United States

On arrival at Upington, you will be met by your guide and transfer to your hotel. The rest of the day is at leisure to rest and relax before you start your adventure. Welcome dinner is included.

After breakfast depart Upington in a northerly direction, entering Botswana through the Boskpits border. After completing the necessary immigration formalities, continue north on your safari until you reach the southern entrance to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, called Two Rivers. Once in the park travel along the Nossob River Valley to Rooiputs Lodge, where you will spend the next four nights. Have a picnic lunch en route prepared by your guide. The Rooiputs private concession area is located on the Botswana side, 25 km north of Two Rivers (Twee Rivieren). Situated off the predator-rich Nossob Valley, the lodge is perched along a mature red sand dune, overlooking a busy waterhole. The dry riverbeds show predators and antelopes off at a premium and provide excellent photographic opportunities. Sixty species of mammals have been recorded in the park, including the majestic gemsbok, blue wildebeest, springbok, red hartebeest, eland, and steenbok. Predators are the area’s big attraction and include the black-maned Kalahari lion, leopard, brown and spotted hyenas, jackal, and wildcat. The area is one of Africa’s best parks for cheetahs, which thrive by hunting in the fossil river valleys and the surrounding Kgalagadi dunes. Eighty well-established waterholes along the Auob and Nossob Rivers attract large numbers of desert plains game and predators, and their proximity to the game drive roads make them an ideal close-up vantage point for photographers.

Explore Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park with game drives

Explore Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park with game drives

Explore Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park with game drives

After breakfast, drive to Rietfontein border to reach the lodge in Namibia. There are strict times involved for border crossings and your guide will be making arrangements to meet these requirements. Have a picnic lunch en route and continue to Keetmanshoop, arriving in the afternoon. The drive will take approximately six hours. After you check into your lodge and have time to rest, this afternoon you’ll visit the Quivertree Forest and photograph these unique trees during sunset. Star photography planned for this evening.

This morning when it is still dark, travel to Giant’s Playground to photograph the rock formations during sunrise. Return to the lodge for a late breakfast, and then enjoy free time until lunch. In the afternoon, you can go back to Giant’s Playground or to Quivertree Forest or choose to rest before you travel to Sossusvlei the next day.

Early morning guided walk where you will have the opportunity to photograph the resident cheetah. After breakfast depart for Sossusvlei, where you will spend the next three nights. The Sossusvlei, Namibia’s famous scenic highlight in the heart of the Namib Desert, is a huge clay pan enclosed by giant sand dunes. Some of the spectacular dunes reach a height of 300 meters, making them the highest in the world. The dunes of the Namib Desert have developed over a period of many millions of years. Vast quantities of sand were deposited into the Atlantic Ocean by the Orange River. This material was subsequently moved northwards by the Benguela current to be dumped back onto the land by the surf. The coastal sand was then continuously shifted further inland by the wind. Wind permanently reshapes the patterns of the Namib dunes. It timelessly forces the grains of sand on the flat windward slope upward to the crest of the dune. Here they fall down in the wind shade. The leeward slope is therefore always considerably steeper than the windward side. The clay ground of the Sossusvlei is almost always dry. Only after a heavy rainfall, which is a rare event in this area (every 10 years on average), does the vlei fill with water. As the clay layers hardly allow any water infiltration, a turquoise lake will remain for quite some time. After lunch at the lodge, have free time to rest and relax. This afternoon drive through the reserve to get your first glimpse of the dunes before exploring the area in depth during the upcoming days.

Early this morning enjoy a hot air balloon safari followed by a Champagne breakfast. Return to hotel for lunch and rest. Spend the afternoon exploring the reserve and enjoy sunset photography at the dunes from the lodge.

Depart very early this morning to reach Dead Vlei before sunrise. Have a picnic breakfast at the site and continue the day exploring the reserve. Return to the lodge for lunch. Continue exploring the dunes in the afternoon.

After breakfast depart for Walvis Bay. The drive will take about 4.5 hours and you will arrive in time for lunch at a local restaurant. This afternoon visit Walvis Lagoon and the salt pans of Walvis Bay for birding photography. Continue with the transfer to Swakopmund, another 45 minutes. Upon arrival check in at the lodge. This evening a feast awaits you: the famous seafood platter at Europa Hof Hotel’s restaurant.

After breakfast, you will participate in a private excursion into the dune belt just south of Swakopmund in 4x4 vehicles looking for the hidden desert creatures such as chameleons, snakes, skinks, scorpions, lizards, geckoes and more. Afterwards, you will have some time to explore the city of Swakopmund. Your guide will give you a brief orientation to the city in your vehicle and then drop you off at a central location for a self guided walking tour. The appearance of the town, with its 30,000 inhabitants, is characterized by numerous colonial buildings, with the Woermann House from 1905 as a landmark. The former trading house in Bismarck Street with its 25 meter high Damara Tower and its courtyard bordered by arcades today houses the city library and an art gallery. A further landmark of Swakopmund is the old 21 meterhigh lighthouse. It started operating in 1910. The museum for local history next door was only built in the 1950s. You will have a chance to explore the local craft market for some shopping opportunities. Lunch will be at a local restaurant. Later in the day, you will drive along the Skeleton Coast, admiring the stunning, dune lined coast to Cape Cross. En route, stop at a shipwreck on the coast. Arrive at the lodge late in the afternoon with the rest of the day at leisure.

After breakfast, visit the seal colony at the Cape Cross Seal Reserve for your morning shoot. The coastline of Southern Africa is the only place in the world where you can find the Cape fur seal, Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus. The seals fight, mate, reproduce, and fish in the reserve, home to the world’s largest breeding colony of these animals. Lunch at the lodge, with free time before and after to go through your pictures before heading out to the seal colony again for your afternoon shoot.

After breakfast travel to Damaraland. During the drive, stop at a Himba and Herero village to meet with the locals and have some opportunities for portraits. Picnic lunch en route. Time permitting, visit the prehistoric rock engravings of Twyfelfontein this afternoon. With more than 2,500 engravings likely originating from the San people, the site has been designated a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.

After breakfast, check out of the hotel and start the journey to Etosha, traveling via Grootberg Pass. Along the way, stop at a Himba settlement. Picnic lunch en route. Check in upon arrival to Etosha, and late in the afternoon enjoy your first game drive within the park.

Explore Etosha National Park with game drives. A visit to Etosha National Park is one of the highlights of Namibia. Etosha, which was declared a game reserve by the German colonial administration back in 1907, covers an area of more than 22,000 square kilometers. In its center lies a vast salt pan surrounded by grasslands and thorn savannah, Mopane bushland in the west, and dry forest in the northeast. About 2 million years ago, this area was an enormous lake, fed by the Kunene River. However, the lake slowly dried up when the river changed its course. The pan is almost always dry. However, in the southern parts there are numerous waterholes scattered throughout this area and supporting the life for countless game. Almost all African game species are represented in Etosha, including the Big Five: elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion, and leopard. Based on an animal count done in 2005, there are about 250 lions, 300 rhinos, 3,000 giraffes, 12,000 zebras, 4,000 wildebeests, 5,500 oryx antelopes, and more than 2,500 elephants. Springboks are especially numerous; at least 20,000 of them roam the reserve. Often they can be seen in enormous herds of several hundred animals.

Explore Etosha National park with game drives.

Today move from the southern part of the park to the eastern for more game drives.

Explore Etosha National park with morning and afternoon game drives.

Today’s journey takes you back into the local area around Namutoni, then out of the park and into the private Onguma Game Reserve to reach the "old-world safari-style" Onguma Bush Camp, your base for the next two nights. Explore the various waterholes in the vicinity before leaving the park, with the option to return this afternoon if desired. Have time to relax on the main deck, which overlooks the camp’s waterhole where game comes and goes throughout the day and night.

Another morning dedicated to memorable game drives within the eastern section of Etosha National Park. Return to camp for lunch and an early afternoon rest, spending your final afternoon on a game drive on the private Onguma Game Reserve, culminating in a sundowner overlooking Fischer’s Pan. Return after sunset with enough time to freshen up for dinner and an evening observing game at the camp’s floodlit waterhole.

START OF PANGOLIN EXTENSION: PARTICIPANTS WHO PREFER NOT TO JOIN HE EXTENSION WILL BE TRANSFERRED TO WINDHOEK INSTEAD AND THEY WILL FLY OUT THE NEXT DAY. Leave behind the plains of Etosha today and travel south towards the bushveld richness of the Okonjima Nature Reserve, arriving in time for a late lunch. Set out this afternoon with one of Okonjima's guides in search of one of their elusive collared but free roaming leopards while on a game drive. Return to the lodge after a sundowner drink to celebrate the day. This evening go in search of the rare and endangered pangolins as you trek on foot with a spotlight through the bushveld. Sightings of these incredible animals are rare in nature but some of them are fitted with radio trackers on Okonjima to not only allow sightings but also to assist with research and education purposes. Your guide will also give you insight into the conservation of these nocturnal mammals.

Spend the day exploring Okonjima Nature Reserve in search of the endangered species. This activity allows more time to enjoy, understand and photograph the Okonjima Nature Reserve as a natural island bound ecosystem. As the Nature Reserve was established primarily to conserve some of the more threatened mammal species, it provides an increased chance to encounter these relatively rare animals. This is once again assisted by the AfriCat Foundation's research projects on the shy brown hyaena, aardvark, aardwolf, bat-eared fox and rhino. There are more than 40 mammal species within the Okonjima Nature Reserve, both large and small as well as a good representation of the typical flora. This evening continue the search for the pangolins on foot.

This morning you will have a chance to visit the world famous AfriCat Foundation where you will be taken on an educational tour to explore the beginnings and current projects that the Foundation runs that are dedicated towards the conservation of large carnivores in Namibia. AfriCat Foundation: Okonjima is home to the AfriCat Foundation, a wildlife sanctuary founded in 1991 that is dedicated to creating conservation awareness, preserving habitat, promoting environmental educational research and supporting animal welfare. Their main focus is Africa's big cats, especially injured or captured leopard and cheetah. AfriCat runs the largest cheetah and leopard rescue and release program in the world. In the last 17 years over 1 000 of these predators have been rescued with over 85% being released back into the wild. Close encounters with leopard and cheetah are an unforgettable highlight. Afterwards you will transfer to Windhoek. Lunch will be at a local restaurant en route. Have the afternoon to rest and get ready for departure. Attend a farewell dinner at a local restaurant in Windhoek.

After a hearty breakfast, you have time to sort out all your camera equipment before your transfer to the Windhoek International Airport.

Arrive back in the United States.