Northern Namibia Guided Lodge Safari

Your tour begins with your arrival at Windhoek's Hosea Kutako International Airport and a short transfer to the Elegant Guesthouse, set in an upmarket neighbourhood of the friendly capital and complete with a swimming pool and complimentary Wi-Fi throughout the property. There is time to settle into your suite and freshen up before meeting your guide and taking a slow stroll into town for an informative and entertaining city tour. And since the guesthouse is only a very short walk from what must be Windhoek's most famous informal eatery - the down-to-earth Joe's Beerhouse - you can meet your fellow travellers there for a memorable first dinner.

Heading north from Windhoek you take a short detour to view the Hoba Meteorite which, at 66 tons is the world's largest, before arriving at Roy's Rest Camp for two nights. Located near the town of Grootfontein on the fringes of the Kalahari Desert, Roy's is a truly welcoming camp where guests are made to feel part of the greater family. It is a place of traditional Namibian food and old-fashioned fun. Your accommodation takes the form of an air-conditioned bungalow with a private bathroom. The next day is spent at the Living Museum of the Ju/'Hoansi-San, a fascinating tribute to Namibia's oldest inhabitants - the Bushmen - and your chance to learn about their ancient culture as well as how to make fire, track animals and forage for food in a deceptively fertile landscape.

It is about a 3-hour drive from Roy's Rest Camp to the first of your Etosha accommodations. Because the park is so large and the landscape so varied, this safari takes in three different camps set in equally different areas of the park to deliver a comprehensive wildlife experience. You begin in a private camp on the park's borders - Mushara Bush Camp - where you can take a welcome shower with views of the surrounding thorn-bush before enjoying a game drive in the afternoon. The next two days are spent in the park, spending a night each at Okaukuejo and Dolomite Camps, with morning and afternoon drives and great opportunities for game viewing as you travel between accommodation. As Namibia's showcase wildlife reserve, Etosha is famous for its heavyweight animals such as elephant, black rhino and giraffe as well as predators - lions, jackals and cheetah especially - and the park has a fantastic range of antelope including Africa's largest - the eland - and one of its smallest - the Damara dik-dik. Waterhole viewing during the dry season is particularly rewarding, and at both camps you have the option of exciting night game drives with a park ranger in search of nocturnal animals such as lions, leopards, porcupines and aardvark.

From Etosha the road takes you north and into what was virtually unchartered territory until a few decades ago: the Kaokoveld, perhaps the wildest part of southern Africa. It is also a place of green-tinted rivers and the Himba people, a semi-nomadic, cattle-herding culture whose ochre-painted skins have graced the landscape for centuries. You divide your three days between Kunene River Lodge and Omarunga Lodge, both set on the life-giving Kunene River, where you can look forward to activities ranging from a sunset boat cruise to meeting the Himba on nature walks and village visits.

Dramatic desert scenery accompanies you all the way after breakfast as you make your way south to Fort Sesfontein - which translates from Afrikaans as 'Fort Six Springs' - formerly a colonial military outpost but now a welcoming lodge with air-conditioned chalets and a swimming pool. Your two nights here give you the chance to spend a full day exploring the acacia-studded grasslands of Hoanib River Valley, a remarkable oasis for wildlife in such a dry and unforgiving environment. Fed by summer rains, the river itself is dry for much of the year but pools of water remain long into the dry season and attract animals ranging from elephants and giraffe to lions and zebra. Back at the lodge, you have a hot shower and cold drinks waiting for you with a traditionally hearty Namibian dinner; the perfect way to end your time in the Kaokoveld.

The southerly route continues as your travel into another region of Namibia: Damaraland, a place of great beauty underlain with ancient geological outcrops. Great crumbling mountains and gravel wastes dominate the landscape, a harsh beauty that is softened at sunset, an event worth getting a cold drink and finding a viewing point for. Your accommodation for one night is Vingerklip Lodge, so named after an especially dramatic wind-sculpted needle of rock that points 35 metres / 115 feet into the sky. Complete with picture-postcard views of the Vingerklip (which means 'Finger Rock), the lodge is set on a game farm and has a spot-lit waterhole in front of camp. After visiting Vingerklip the following morning, you drive east and onto the town of Okahandja where there is time to browse through the well-known souvenir market before checking in at Elegant Farmstead for the last night of your overland safari.

After breakfast at Elegant Farmhouse there is an easy 2-hour drive back to Windhoek for the end of the tour. Here, depending on your travel arrangements, you will be taken to Hosea Kutako International Airport or to the city accommodation that you have arranged.