Check out the map of our Namibian Journey with all of the details below.
Our journey started in Windhoek where we received our car and travel map and got set up for the next week on the road. We stayed at The Weinberg Hotel which was a super cool and modern hotel. It was a great place to stay. It had a cute lounge area with games and a great rooftop bar area. It also had few restaurants on property to make it easy for our meals. We had dinner at the Butcher Block and a delicious breakfast packed for us when we hit the road to the Cheetah Conservation.
We had an amazing time learning at the Cheetah Conservation. It was great to hear about what they do for the cheetahs and also how they are breeding dogs to help local farmers protect their cattle. They also had goats to make milk and cheese products for income. We were driven to see their female cheetahs and were able to watch the male cheetahs eat.
That evening we stayed at the Frans Indogo Lodge which was about 30 minutes from the Cheetah Conservation. It was small, but felt very authentic. It was not super fancy but perfect and one of our favorite lodges. We were able to go on a sundown drive and saw numerous animals including White Rhinos and their babies! We also saw Springbok, Oryx, Eland and Wildebeest. We loved the lookout tower and there was a cool area where you could go for a hike.
After our hike we set out for the Onguma Bush Camp which was set just outside the east gate of Etosha National Park. We arrived in time for a quick swim and a sundowner drive on their reserve. We were super lucky and saw Lions with 4 baby cubs as well as a Jackal, Wildebeest, Elephant and Zebras!
The following day we woke up early for a full day exploring Etosha National Park. We saw over 100 zebras and over 100 giraffe! We also saw a breeding heard of elephants, 2 cheetah, wildebeest and a lot of elephants. We came back to the lodge and had some pool and game time before dinner.
The following day we arose early again to drive through the national park by ourselves which was a really cool adventure. We stopped at a few watering holes and were able to catch a Jackal killing a bird! We also saw 2 Black Rhinos!!
It was a really cool ride to Safarihoek which was up on a hill. We arrived in time for a quick pool dip and a sundowner drive. We saw lions sleeping and one lion tracking a giraffe. One of our favorite parts was skipping rocks at the watering hole!
The following day we did a morning and an evening drive and were able to get a long relaxing afternoon at the pool to swim and play games. We saw vultures, 2 black rhinos, 2 male lions and 2 jackals. We had another fun sundowner drive skipping rocks.
The following day we did one last morning drive in Etosha and then packed up and drove close to 5 hours to Onduli Ridge in Damaraland. You can see below the camp was set up between those 2 huge rock mounds. Also below shows some of the different road conditions. When we arrived we went for a hike among the HUGE redrocks and then a quick swim and beautiful sunset before dinner.
We awoke early for a day of elephant tracking! We were searching for the famous desert adapted elephant. It took close to 3 hours, but we found a pack of 16. It was really cool to watch them eat and migrate around. We found a spot on top of the dunes to have a snack and watch them.
We came back and went for another cool hike up and around the red rocks and then made our own pizzas for dinner.
Today we drove from Damaraland to Swakopmund (4-5 hours). It was nice to hit some paved roads for the last quarter of the drive. Swakamound is an old German town that is very vibrant so it was odd to see so many people again. It is on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean which had HUGE waves. We went for Camel rides and drove ATVs through the dunes!!
We had dinner at The Tug after a beautiful sunset.
The following day we drove from Swakopmund to Sossusvlei it was a very long (5 1/2 hours), but a really cool drive through 2 canyons.
We arrived at the Kulala Desert Wilderness Lodge and enjoyed some pool time, a nature drive, and sunset. We loved their enclosed trucks with a roof that could pop open for viewing.
We woke up super early and went to climb the “Big Daddy” dunes in Sossusvlei and the best part was rolling, running and cartwheeling back down! We then walked through Death Vlei and explored the petrified trees.
In the afternoon we visited Sessiem Canyon which was super cool (much more than we thought it would be). We were able to hike down inside the canyon and actually saw water and fish! On the way back we stopped for one last sundowner at Boulder’s Point. We carved our names into the rocks and saw a Brown Hyena!
The last day we had breakfast, played games, rode e-bikes and then made the long 2 day journey back to the US. What an amazing adventure this was so sad to see it end. I was nervous about all the moving and packing up and it really worked out great.
Food Play Go 