When you tour Southern Africa you'll definitely want to visit Botswana to get to experience what an African safari is like in the area's National Parks and wildlife reserves. The awesome thing about that real African safari feel? You can do it, and tour Southern Africa on a budget! Check out these YouTube videos outlining the wildlife, nature and adventure that awaits on Southern Africa tours.

Tour Southern Africa with a Botswana safari

Moremi Wildlife Reserve - Botswana - Overland tour Southern Africa

Choose from a variety of Southern Africa tours that include Moremi Wildlife Reserve on your route. Here is where you can check out the overland trips including Moremi.

Chobe National Park - Botswana - Overland tour Southern Africa

Pick your overland trip that includes Chobe National Park along the route, while you tour Southern Africa. Browse overland travel including Chobe National Park.

Gemsbok National Park - Botswana - Southern Africa tours

Tackle the route of a safari in Gemsbok National Park with a self-drive tour of Southern Africa with Botswana 4x4 hire. Thanks to Ian n. White for the above photo of the White-browed Robin-Chat, and thanks to Valpard on YouTube for the use of the great video footage he captured on these Southern Africa tours. Botswana really is one of the best places to tour Southern Africa's amazing wildlife, ecosystems and landscapes. Don't miss out.

Tour Southern Africa on a budget by booking an overland trip. Most overland trips include the cost of food, transport while on the trip and accommodation, so all your main expenses are paid for upfront. But why exactly is overland travel on Southern Africa tours so cheap? When you tour Southern Africa, or any part of Africa for that matter, there are certain things that make your overland travel option the cheapest way to travel to Africa. Here they are:

Food on a budget

With overland travel, ingredients are bought in bulk, making it cheaper for each traveller to be fed on the trip.  The food you'll eat on Southern Africa tours is of scrumptious quality and comes off of a well planned trip menu. Philani Mguni is an overland truck driver and chef whom we have booked many travellers a seat with. Philani says "Travellers will never get bored with the menu. If someone is doing 21 days of overland travel, they won't be having the same meal twice on the trip!" Food on an overland trip is included in the local payment cash you pay to your tour leader before you depart.

Transport on a budget

Transport is an overland truck. If a truck and a bus had babies, an overland truck would be the offspring. The front cab and exterior shape come from daddy-truck, and the hand luggage storage and interior seating come from mommy-bus. These babies seat about 24 passengers and are equipped up to their eyeballs with compartments for everything from teaspoons to camping chairs. When the trip cost is calculated, the petrol cost is divided by 24 passengers and you only have to pay your 24th of that. This is included in the overall trip cost, meaning transport is included. Even if there are only 10 people travelling with you, you won't have to part with a penny extra for your overland truck transport.

Activities

You can decide what activities you want to do while you tour Southern Africa. Depending on what kind of experiences you're travelling to Africa for will determine how cheap your trip is. If you intend to jump off of every possible bridge (with a secure harness), or out of every plane (in a parachute), then your trip is going to be more expensive. But if you're booking the odd game drive, going on an elephant back safari or sunset cruise, you'll find that your money stretches further and you're able to do a handful of activities you really want to do because the rest of your trip hasn't cost you so much. Just want to enjoy the route and no take part in any activities? No problem. It's all up to you, and activity fees are paid locally so there are no extra package handling fees involved on Southern Africa tours. Check out the video below for a montage of a satisfied traveller's journey on a Southern Africa tour:

Cheap accommodation

Accommodation is included in an overland Southern Africa tour price. Now all you have to do is decide whether to go on a camping, or accommodated overland trip. The difference? A camping tour of Southern Africa is cheaper than an accommodated one. The canvas tents used when camping are so thick it can almost stand up without poles. Accommodated is often dorms or chalets. If you’d like a little more of a run-down on each, check out our ‘camping vs accommodated’ post.

Extra expenses?

Okay, okay, I hear you! “Sure, Southern Africa tours are cheap, but flights and travel insurance are expensive”. False! Your overland trip budget of expenses doesn’t have to ring up into the gazillions. If you book far enough in advance you can grab amazing flight prices. USA Today's Ben Mutzabaugh commented on buying airline tickets early. "Airlines tend to offer the lowest prices on 21-day advance tickets. However, advance purchase fares can often be secured in as little as 14 or 7 days ahead of your departure date. If you wait until fewer than 7 days, you're unlikely to find a good deal." Also, your consultant is there to help you and will, with no worry, advise you where you might be able to find well priced flights and travel insurance for your tour of Southern Africa. Also, spending money is completely up to you. If you really want to travel with your purse strings tighter than a camel’s starfish in a sandstorm, then that’s great! All it will mean is you get home with a couple less curios than the other travellers.

Tour Southern Africa on a budget

Top three Southern Africa tours:

1. Southern Loop

Check out the overland travel itinerary for the Southern Loop Southern Africa tour.

2. Southern Africa Adventure

Check out the Southern Africa tour itinerary for the Southern Africa Adventure.

3. Best of South Africa

Check out the trip itinerary to tour Southern Africa with the Best of South Africa overland trip.

Want a longer list of options to tour Southern Africa? Check out a full list of tours starting in South Africa, pick, book and explore!

South Africa: the country of stunning natural wonders, breath-taking adventure and cultural and political tales which have both inspired and changed the world. The cherry on the cake is being about to get South Africa on a budget with these Top 5 Best South Africa Tours and Safaris. We’re confident these offer travellers the best South Africa travel, with its scenery, wildlife, culture and the awesomeness (that's totally a word).

1. Garden Route Discoverer

The trip along Garden Route in one of those South Africa tours and safaris you don’t want to miss out on. As the trip leads you from Cape Town to Addo Elephant Park, the journey follows a scenic string of southern Africa, leaving a wake of adventurous exploration behind you. Boasting amazing scenery and adventure activities, if you’ve ever wanted to test your bravery, this is the most beautiful place to do it. Venture the highest bungee in the world, ride an ostrich, walk with elephants, soak up the beautiful surrounds and enjoy an east bound South Africa tour of epic proportions.

The Garden Route South Africa Tour Route:

2. Swazi and Lesotho Trek

How often does it happen when you come across two countries within a country!? Not often, I’ll have you know. Well, Swaziland and Lesotho are two landlocked countries. Landlocked by South Africa. So on this South Africa tour you get to explore three countries on one route. Bargain! From the mountainous kingdom of Swaziland and their fond love of beads and clay to and exploration of the Battlefields of the Blood River. This journey also introduces you to the game at the Royal Natal National Park and the faces and lives of the Basotho people of Lesotho.

The Swazi and Lesotho Trek Route, South Africa Tour Route:

3. Voortrekker Express

If you’re reared-up for a South Africa tour off the beaten track, then you need not look any further. Well, at least until the end of this blurb. The Voortrekker Express is a route up South Africa’s West Coast, along a path that takes you to all the real down-to-earth local destinations, with their veldskoen* wearing and humble hospitality. Scope out the massive SALT telescope, trek across the Karoo, visit those 'old school' Afrikaner towns, check out the black-maned Lions, camp on the Orange River, and work your stomach muscles with laughter at Darling’s own 'Evita Bezuidenhout'. A cultural journey of a life-time, the South African way.

The Voortrekker Express, South Africa Tour Route:

4. Best of South Africa

The Best of South Africa tour, is exactly that. This trip takes you along the scenic route to visit world famous Kruger National Park, the culturally rich, landlocked countries of Swaziland and Lesotho as well as along the pristine Garden Route on the Indian Ocean coast. This route gives you an opportunity to experience a wide section of South Africa, while fitting in most of the country’s ‘must-see’ attractions, truly making it one of the best South Africa tours.

The Best of South Africa Tour Route:

5. Discover South Africa

This journey between Johannesburg and Cape Town covers a portion of South Africa which allows you to experience the Big 5 in the Kruger National Park, the Golden Mile in Durban as well as the kingdoms of South Africa’s neighbours Lesotho and Swaziland. The famous Garden Route lends its beautiful vistas, while Stellenbosch Winelands offers a taste of greatness with award winning food and wine. The trip comes to an end in the diverse Mother City, Cape Town, with its endless list of attractions, activities and recently titled New Natural Wonder of World: Table Mountain.

The Discover South Africa Tour Route:

South Africa tours and safaris are geared to offer you a trek through specific regions to show off the best of the countries wildlife, vegetation, birds, attractions, adventure activities and brilliant sunsets. Come to think of it, any South Africa tour you go on is going to give you that, but experiencing it on an overland trip makes the getaway experience extraordinary. All you have to do is pick an overland trip to get South Africa on a budget!

*Veldskoene are shoes made of leather that are thought to have been made by the Hottentots before the arrival of Europeans, and are still worn in South Africa.

Epic, wonderful, spectacular - words that fall frighteningly short of what the feeling of wanderlust accomplished presents... Read on for the final tale of Tamzyn’s 21 day Cape Town to Vic Falls overland trip.

Day 22: Victoria Falls

Today is my last day at Victoria Falls and reaching the end of my Overlanding Africa trip is very disheartening. I keep thinking that this tour cannot get any more exciting, any more wonderful or any more spectacular and then I wake up and something else comes along to prove me wrong! An overlanding trip is absolutely the greatest African adventure! Cliff-Diving Head First We are going out with a bang and opted for the many hair-raising extreme activities on offer around Victoria Falls. There is so much for us to choose from: lion walks, elephant back safaris, gorge swinging, bungee jumping, grade 5 white water rafting, and helicopter flights over the falls. In the end we decide to toss our logic out the window and opt for the gorge swing, zip-line and flying fox package; or as was eloquently put by one of my overlanding tour buddies “to jump head first off three platforms down a bottomless gorge for no other reason than to scare ourselves sh##less”! The gorge swing is the highlight of the day! We look like a group of mentally insane patients; climbing up onto our hands before being pushed off the platform and diving 70 metres head first, along the cliff face before swinging out above the furious brown waters of the Zambezi River below. Victoria Falls Park After all that monumental adventure we have the afternoon left to walk along the length of the roaring white waters of Victoria Falls and appreciate the different viewpoints of Mosi-oa-Tunya: The Smoke that Thunders. The seemingly endless curtain of water gushes with immense power and force rushing down the side of the steep chasm at over 545 million litres per minute and sending a towering cloud of spray spiralling up into the air. We are so dumbstruck by the sight of Victoria Falls, we don’t even notice that we are all soaked from head to toe in the shower of spray.

Day 23: It’s Hard to Say Goodbye

It’s a sad and difficult farewell to my new found friends and the overlanding truck, the flight from the airport marks the end of my awesome adventure filled overland journey from Cape Town to Victoria Falls. I saw some fantastic sights, experienced and explored more of Africa than I could have ever dreamed of and met inspiring and friendly locals - as well as making a bunch of new friends and amazing memories. These have only fed my wanderlust for overland trips through Africa. To find out more about overland tour trips in Africa contact the OverlandingAfrica team or post your comments below. You can also check out the Cape Town to Victoria Falls Tour Itinerary and the next available Overlanding tour dates.

Tamzyn's 21 day Cape Town to Vic Falls Overland trip continues in full force. Read on for the penultimate account of this epic adventure.

Day 19: Chobe National Park

Botswana’s Chobe National Park is where we are headed today. Elephants literally line the roadside on our way to the park, so close to our Overlanding truck we can almost reach out and touch them. We come across two breeding herds with their adorable babies in tow. After our ten-hour overlanding truck ride we arrive at our Chobe camp site and spend the afternoon exploring, reading and enjoying the cool waters of the pool. Tantalizing Treats Trymore (the official cook) whips up a scrumptious meal of sadza (maize map) and peanut butter relish which we all wolf down greedily before listening to the next day’s itinerary. Then we all spin off to find a quiet spot under the star studded sky and listen to the hippos and hyenas calling to us from the other side of the fence. Aside from a few camp sites, nothing else is fenced in Chobe and you can often see herds of elephants, buck and even the odd lion walking down the main street. How frickin’ cool is that!

Day 20: Chobe National Park

We have an early start this morning for a 5:30 am game drive through the Thebe Area of the Chobe National Park, and we are spoilt for choice with some of the insane game viewing. Hippos, elephants, Cape buffalo, crocodiles, impala and baboons, we get to see it all and plenty of it! The Chobe National Park is one of the best game viewing areas left in the whole of Africa and is home to the biggest surviving elephant population. We all can’t believe how lucky we are to be appreciating this buffet of wildlife in such a lush setting. Mopane Worms After lunch we walk into the Village of Kasane and explore the local markets and food vendor stalls lining the streets. There is a variety of local cuisine to try, but I can’t quite wrap my head around biting into a dried fish head and so opt for a Mopane Worm instead. They are a bit salty and taste like sardines. So much for being a vegetarian…as they say: ‘when in Rome...’! Cruising the Four Borders Our sunset cruise takes us to the meeting point of the four borders of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Namibia and gets us up close to an enormous elephant bull wading on the river bank. It is fascinating to watch the herds of elephants greeting each other, playing in the shallows and protecting their babies from the lurking crocodiles. You get such a sense of the intelligence, gentleness and strong family bonds of the herds. We even see a crocodile try to sneak up on a baby elephant- it’s exciting stuff!

Day 21: Victoria Falls

We cross our final border into Zimbabwe today. It’s an hour’s drive to Victoria Falls and as we round the corner we can see the impressive spray and mist clouds rising up from kilometres away. Exploring Victoria Falls I meet Sunshine, a born and bred Rastafarian local who offers to show me around Victoria Falls on an exclusive personal tour. He leads me around the local arts and craft market, introducing me to his friends and their stalls crammed with curios and hand crafted wares. Everyone is extremely welcoming and accepting and keen to show me their sculpting, beading and weaving skills that their parents have passed down to them. The Big Tree Sunshine and I then hike along the banks of the powerful Zambezi River, which is in full and furious flow at the moment. He shows me the local fishing and swimming spots before we head off to see the Big Tree of Victoria Falls. The dramatic 16 metre high baobab is around 1,500 years old and could easily take twelve people to form a chain around it. The tree is like a map to the history of the town with carvings from as early as 1930! Watch this space for the final installment of Tamzyn's epic adventure. [Read part 8 here] For information about Overlanding in Africa or to find out more about this trip, contact the team at OverlandingAfrica.com

The Okavango Delta, yet another highlight on Tamzyn's 21 day Cape Town to Vic Falls overland trip, the good times just keep rolling in.

Day 16: The Okavango Delta

We’re in the Delta! We had an early start, left our overlanding truck behind and after an hour’s 4x4 drive arrived at the poling station to load up our mokoro’s (local canoes made from hollowed out trees) and set off into the unfenced bush of the Okavango Delta. Our mokoro poler, Elijah Daniel, was very friendly, knowledgeable and quite skilled at poling our large butts and luggage through the cool waterways and Okavango Delta channels. All we had to do was relax and enjoy the lily pad lined waterways, run our fingers through the cool water and listen to reeds swish along the side of the mokoro. Life on an overland trip sure is tough! Nature Calls in the Bush We set up our Okavango Delta camp under the shade of an enormous sausage tree and got shown the bathroom: a spade, a hole and a roll of toilet paper.  We were camping proper bush style and loving it. The Okavango Delta is the world’s largest inland delta and its different habitats and labyrinth of waterways and lagoons support a wide variety of animals, from hippos to wild dogs, elephants, rhino and lion. Learning to Drive a Mokoro Then it was our turn to try a hand at being a poler! Our antics had the polers in stitches and they soon had to come to my rescue and keep reminding me how to steer! There were a few wobbly starts and some of us spent a lot of time stuck in the reeds, but once we got the hang of it we were racing excitedly across the shallow pool, crashing into each other and steering round the reeds. Sunset Safari Okavango Delta Game Walk After we half-heartedly made our way back to the banks and handed over our poles we headed off to explore the grassy plains and try our luck at spotting some game. Bolly, our guide, knew plenty about the spoor (animal tracks) and plants that we found, teaching us the various uses of wild sage and how to make palm wine.

Day 17: The Magical Okavango Delta

This morning we hopped back into our mokoro’s and steered our way to another island for our second guided walk through the golden grasslands on which we saw giraffe, a duiker and a honey badger. But that didn’t beat walking thigh deep through the water channels and getting our shoes stuck in the thick mud. A Village Visit We also visited the nearby village of Xaraxao and tasted Chibuku/shake shake (Sorghum Beer) before chasing down and catching the chicken for our dinner pot. A Mokoro Cruise in Hippo Pool After a quiet afternoon around camp, catching up and reading our books we packed our drink of choice and poled our way to Hippo Pool to watch the sun sink below the glittering water and light up the lilies. It was a fitting end to an unbelievable overlanding trip into the Okavango Delta. Great conversation with the polers, stunning waterway views and wildlife spotting - the Delta is paradise on earth! Dancing Around the Fire Back at our bush camp, our polers treated us to songs, story telling and traditional dancing around the roaring fire. Then it was our turn to entertain them, although our rendition of “Yellow Submarine” and “In the Jungle” was more of a torture than a show!

Day 18: Celebrating my Birthday in the Okavango Delta

I turned 22 in the Okavango Delta and I couldn’t think of a more idyllic setting or better birthday present than this Overland adventure. On our early morning walk we got up close to a herd of zebra running through the plains and across the watering hole. Back to Reality, Almost We were all extremely sad at having to pull down our tents, pack up our mokoro’s and leave the magical Okavango Delta. I even tried to convince Elijah to keep on rowing and help me learn to live like Robinson Crusoe surviving on water lily soup and palm wine, but he wasn’t interested. Bottoms Up in Maun Elijah and some other polers met up with us in Maun and showed us around the sleepy town and it’s shebeens, before we carried the party back to the bar at Sitatunga camp site and danced our last Maun night away. Stay tuned for Tamzyn's penultimate post... For information about Overlanding in Africa or to find out more about this trip, contact the team at OverlandingAfrica.com

The Overland truck treks up through Etosha and into Botswana, wildlife is more plentiful and truck life is becoming second nature on Tamzyn's 21 day Cape Town to Vic Falls overland trip.

Day 13: Etosha

It’s a quick drive to the Namutoni gate of the Etosha National Park and within minutes we are surrounded by hoards of game. Centered around the shimmering silver pan, the Etosha National Park covers over 22 000 sq kilometers and is home to the Big 5, as well as a number of rare and endangered species (including the Black Rhino). We are all bouncing around the truck madly pointing out the fascinating game as we drive past journeys of Giraffe, herds of Zebra, plenty of Wildebeest as well as tons of the McDonald’s of the African plains (Impala). We are even lucky enough to chance a sighting of the elusive Leopard, which walks straight out of the bush past our Overlanding Truck and off down the road. Awesome! A herd of Buffalo visits the floodlit watering hole at our campsite. We watch them quietly drink from the pool before it starts to rain and we dart past the jackals scampering around and into the cover of our tents.

Day 14: Rundu

Swim for Your Lives We wake up with a swimming start, our tent having been transformed into a watering hole in last night’s downpour. Still we weren’t as bad off as some of the other overlanders who spent the night on the truck after being rained out of their tents! Off to Rundu After a seven hour drive, some of us choosing to pass the time with a little help from Uncle Bells, we arrive at Rundu on Namibia’s shared Angolan border and not far from where we will cross the border into Botswana. As we are driving, the landscape changes dramatically around us, from grassy golds to lush greens whilst Nguni cattle line the streets and people dressed in dark coloured prints appear along the roadside. We knew we were getting close to the Botswana border! We set up camp on the banks of the Kavango River and although there are supposed to be some monster crocs and hippo’s around we don’t manage to spot any. Instead we enjoy our drinks whilst looking out from the deck overhanging the river and listen to the chorus of reed frogs and the engine of the sunset cruise boat as it chugs by.

Day 15: Maun

Hippo Hollers We heard a hippo on the banks near our campsite last night whilst we were lying in our tents. Woo-hoo, I wouldn’t trade that sound for the world! Botswana Baby, Yeah! A quick trip and we cross the border into Botswana. The roads are long and flat reaching out into the horizon. We drive past herds of livestock running across the road every 100 metres. Tons of goats, sheep and cattle and they aren’t afraid of our overlanding truck. The surrounding bush is thick, lush and green with ominous rain clouds gathering like grey candy-floss across the sky. Maun We arrive at the Sitatunga Campsite, the base for our Okavango Delta Mokoro trip, and unpack before heading off into the town of Maun to browse the local markets for the afternoon. Maun is the fifth largest town in Botswana, although standing in the middle of the main street you can see from one end of the town to the other. I found some killer hot and spicy chilies at the vendor market, as well as some cool looking safari hats! We spend the rest of the night dreaming about what the Okavango Delta had in store for us on this dream vacation. TIA (This is Africa) and I am enjoying the hell out of it. Can’t wait for the Delta!

Approaching the half way mark in her 21 day Cape Town to Vic Falls overland trip, Tamzyn's affection for the Namib Desert, the creatures that inhabit it, and her overland truck, grows.

Day 10: Spitzkoppe

We spent our final morning in Swakopmund walking through enchanting streets, visiting the market squares, soaking up the German-styled architecture and crashing seashore views of the paved palm tree promenade. I gulped down a piping hot cup of local coffee from one of the many quaint coffee shops whilst looking out at the fog-covered pier and saying goodbye to Swakopmund. Mars Landing in Namibia After a winding, scenic five-hour drive through the Namib Desert, our Overland truck arrived at the Spitzkoppe community campsite to explore the towering granite peaks and crazy rock formations of Africa’s Matterhorn. We set up our campsite and then hiked off on a guided expedition through the mind-blowing beauty of Spizkoppe’s striking 700 million year-old peaks; the lunar ridges rising up out of the barren flat desert landscape giving me a sense of alien perspective. James, our local tour guide, showed us the fascinating San rock paintings and told us about the rich history of the Bushman, how to use the plants to survive off the land and taught us a few choice Damara phrases and games. We climbed the kopje behind our campsite and watched the changing light and sunset colours dance across the sky. Dancing with the Stars We then returned to camp for another punch night, carried on the back of songs while we watched the energetic dancing of a local entertainment group performing around our roaring fire. Bush Camping After dinner we climbed the kopje again to spend our night under the clear canopy of stars, drinking in the fresh African air. This is why I came Overlanding! We settled in for the night, blessed with expansive views across the bush and out toward the towering peaks in the distance. The absolute stillness of the night tricked us into believing we’d found solitude, that is until the rumble of a snore rattled the still bushveld air and brought us back to the present. (Handy Tip: If you are planning to sleep outside in your sleeping bag, strip down to your undies. It actually keeps you warmer. Huh, who knew?)

Day 11: Otjitotongwe Cheetah Park

There is something so magical about waking up on the mountainside to a sunrise. We heard a noise in the middle of the night which sounded like a growl and Johan swore he saw an ominous shape, turns out it was probably a donkey!! Cheetahs, Cheetahs and more Cheetahs Arriving at the Otjitotongwe Cheetah Park we got our pictures taken with the three (sort of) tame cheetahs before driving into their main camp of ‘wild’ cheetahs for frenzied feeding time. It was chaos as donkey meat went flying and we watched the cheetahs battle each other for the biggest pieces. We got some amazing photographs though! My heart melted for the cheetah that is blind in one eye, but still fierce and giving it horns. The park has seventeen wild cheetah, three tameish cheetahs and a fearless fox terrier (Voksie) who commands the lot. Otjitotongwe Cheetah Park was started when Tollie, a cattle farmer with a pesky cheetah problem caught a pregnant cheetah. The litter brought in tourists and they decided to convert the farm into a cheetah conservation project. Licking Warthog B**ls We beat it back to the campsite bar for a cold Namibian beer and some well deserved games of pool. The losers had to lick the stuffed pair of warthog balls hanging on the wall, though this wasn’t nearly as demanding a forfeit offered by the stuffed bull-elephant’s fifth leg.

Day 12: Australia Day

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie

We celebrated Aussie Day today with an Aussie style breakfast of vegemite on toast!!! We all got into the spirit covering ourselves in flags, bandana’s and tattoos of the Aussie flag before bundling back onto the truck and bounding down the rocky Namibian roads. We arrived, hot and dusty, at the Etosha Safari Lodge just outside of the Etosha National Park and all dove straight in to the cool pool where we spent the rest of our afternoon chilled with cold beers, glorious sun and good books. That night we made Dampa (Stokbrood - 'Stick Bread') round the braai. Recipe:

• Flour
• Water
• Salt

You wrap it round a stick, cook it in the open fire and then enjoy with cheese, syrup or honey. YUM! We all almost took off running when we mistook someone snoring for a roaring Lion, and then we decided to film it for laughs tomorrow. Life on safari, is there anything better? Stay tuned for the next excerpt from Tamzyn's Overland Diary. [Read part 5 here] For information about overlanding in Africa or to find out more about this trip, contact the team at OverlandingAfrica.com

As Tamzyn plunges deeper into her 21 day Cape Town to Vic Falls overland trip, her capacity for adventure broadens...

Day 7: The Namib Desert, Dune 45 and Swakopmund

Woohoo!! We race up the 148 meter monster of Dune 45, some of our arses having to be dragged up the dune, to see Sossusvlei stretching out in a sea of caramel-rippled ice-cream. We were even overtaken by a fit granny on a serious mission who hiked past us at one heck of a speed putting most of us to shame. The view quickly pushes our tired muscles to the back of our minds, as we take time to absorb the sights from the top of the world. The sand towers burn in every shade of rich red, bright orange and deep gold from the streaks of light peering through the clouds. The Namib Desert, which translates from Nama to 'vast area', is the oldest desert in the world and spans 80, 900 km² of desert vlei and dunes with some dunes towering at over 300 meters.

The Namibian Survival Guide

After a mouthwatering and energizing breakfast of French toast and eggs and a quick 4x4 Namibian offroad trip we are at the heart of Sossusvlei. A guided tour through the gorgeous Deadvlei and Hiddenvlei, complete with hilarious anecdotes, expressions, and a shortened version of the Namibian Desert survival book rounds up our morning perfectly. Our proud Namibian ambassador and tour guide extraordinaire even manages to convince a few of us that the best food source, if stranded in the Namibian Desert, is to kill an Oryx by breaking off its own horn and stabbing it in the heart.

Overlanding’s Cardinal Sin

The early morning starts seem to be getting the better of a few travelers who are caught sleeping through the truck ride, missing half of the Namibian experience and natural beauty as it passes by outside their window. Heavenly Apple Strudel Solitaire is our final stop before arriving at Swakopmund. It is also the perfect chance to enjoy a yummy piece of Namibia’s best Apple strudel from Moose's place.

Swakopmund - Extreme Adventure Paradise

Swakopmund is our home for the next three days and it's every adrenalin junkies dream with plenty of opportunity to enjoy some crazy adventures. We are so spoilt for choice that it’s difficult to decide what to do. Sandboarding, quadbiking, skydiving, para-gliding, cruising through the waves or kayaking past the breakers, if its extreme it’s in Swakopmund. Originally the main harbour for South-West Africa, Swakopmund is now better known for being Namibia’s top beach holiday resort and the unique experiences are the perfect chance to explore the dunes and waves of the Namibia Desert from a different perspective.

Ariba!

Tonight’s Mexican Fiesta themed party at our Hotel Gruner Kranz club is our first chance to experience Namibia’s nightlife. We pack the dance floor and dance till the early morning, once again slightly overhydrating ourselves and enjoying each others hilarious ‘dance’ moves .

Day 8: Swakopmund - Calm Before the Storm

Our first beds in a week are soft heavenly clouds of cushion! Swakopmund’s characteristic morning mist is refusing to lift, so some of our activities have been moved to tomorrow which is great news for those of us who need IV coffee drips after dancing until closing time this morning. Some of the group spends the day taking full advantage of Swakopmund’s internet and coffee café’s in the charming German-styled town. I choose to walk Swakopmunds palm-tree lined promenade and gorgeous coastline of caramel colored sand dunes enjoying some personal thinking time and solitude in the desert. The fishermen are hauling in today’s catch as kids play in the breakers at the bathing beach and the old shipwreck bobs in the waves. The Swakopmund pier and local cafés are buzzing with tourists as the sun sets on another perfect day on this Namibia safari.

Day 9: Swakopmund Adrenaline Day

After a quick breakfast of eggs, cereal and French toast we dash upstairs of a quick shower before heading out to explore the desert and get our adrenalin kicks for the trip.

The Greatest Day of my Life

The day starts with some epic action. We race up and down a monster 100m dune trying to learn how to sand board on full size snowboards. I can’t seem to stop smiling which is problematic when I spend more time on my face with a mouthful of sand than standing up on my board. We finish up with Dizzy, the fastest lie-down boarding run in which you whizz down the dune face on waxed up wooden chipboard at speeds over 70 km/ h. One person clocked 78 km/h whilst a few others came clean off their boards and ended up with crusty sand filled eyes and mouths but even then they couldn’t stop laughing.

Go Jump Out of a Plane!

This is the most fun that you can have with your clothes on!! We are all loving life as we bundle in the kombi and head back to Gruner Kranz, for a quick change before psyching ourselves up to jump out of a plane. My excitement is building as I watch the others go up and then come down in a mushroom coloured cloud looking chuffed as hell. Champion sleeper, Kim, even manages to sneak in a nap 15 minutes after jumping. Surprisingly my jump partner and I are not nervous.The afternoon seems to whizz by at the skydiving hangar and soon they are calling our names for the final jump of the day- the sunset jump. DID I MENTION I LOVE MY LIFE! Mias, my instructor, is so friendly and excited that he immediately puts any fears I should have had out of my mind. The climb to 10 00 ft takes only 25 minutes as we fly over and take in the insanely gorgeous views of Swakopmund and the desert. 5 minutes left and I am being strapped in by Mias for final checks. Then we are shuffling towards the door, sitting on the edge! Then freefall - 5 000 ft in 35 sec! Absolutely amazing! No one can describe the sensation of cruising through the air at 250 km/ h. I scream the whole way down and when Mias hands me the parachute toggle I pull it hard to make me spin faster towards the ground. I am wearing a permanent smile for the next two days and we all can’t stop replaying the jump in our minds both in our minds and on video.

Next instalment is in the post...

For information about overlanding in Africa or to find out more about this trip, contact the team at OverlandingAfrica.com

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We continue with Tamzyn and her 21 day overland adventure from Cape Town to Victoria Falls...

Day 4: The Fish River Canyon

Exploring the Orange River banks with a monstrous hang over is not the greatest idea but at least we get to spend most of the morning recovering on the comfy deck chairs of the pool deck overhanging the brown waters of the river.

Desert Driving

After lunch we are back on the truck and driving past sheer cliff faces as the truck rumbles and tumbles along the rugged landscapes of rich ochre reds and sahara golds. The dry desert wind fills the truck and the dust adds it’s own special flavouring to our already dry mouths . Last nights action has a lot of the heads nodding on the truck even though these bumpy Namibian roads are trying their hardest to keep us awake.

Canyons, Cars and Quiver Trees

The Canon Roadhouse, a quirky campsite decorated with windmills and classic cars/new potholders is our rest stop for tonight. We are in the middle of nowhere surrounded by desert and rock expanses stretching out for miles to the horizon. AWESOME doesn’t even begin to describe this place!! After a refreshing dip in the campsite pool we venture off to the grand Fish River Canyon for one of Southern Africa’s most scenic sundowners. The Fish River Canyon is the second largest Canyon in the world, the largest in Africa and one of Namibia’s top natural wonders. A 160 km long ravine cuts deep into the dry, stony plateau creating an enormous chasm which is 27 km wide and in places, up to 550m deep. The sunset fills the sky in a kaleidoscope of bright blue, pink and orange all melting into each other. You can’t believe your eyes out here. We are all standing in stunned silence as we watch the sun sink below and the canyon filled with shadows. If there is a more spiritual experience in the world I would be surprised. The desert around our camp is peacefully quiet tonight with our evening fireside chatter being the only source of noise on the desert floor.

A Midnight Swim in the Desert

My hopes for a cold shower to wash off the Namibian dust tan have been dashed by the hot water that is flowing out of the showers cold water pipes. The underground pipes are cooked by the daily desert heat and will stay warm all night. Instead, a few of us go for a midnight swim in the cool pool water before we turn in. We were supposed to be trucking to the Namib Naukluft National Park tomorrow but instead we are splitting the drive over two days and spending tomorrow evening at the Konkiep Lapa campsite. We fall asleep to a full moon peeking through our tent netting in the absolute stillness of the desert! I think I have found heaven and it’s on a Namibia Overlanding Tour.

Day 5: The Seeheim Hotel and Konkiep Lapa Rest Camp

My first shower in two days is a heavenly after a quick hike up the hill behind our campsite. Endless desert views stretching out in 360 degrees are the order of the day as we follow the Namibian railway tracks north across the vast gold landscape, dotted with quiver and acacia trees. Snacking at the Seeheim Hotel A welcomed stop in the midday Namibian heat, the German inspired Seeheim Hotel (the sole business in Seeheim) is our lunch stop. Zirkie Kloppers and his wife have lived in Seeheim for 12 years and say “there has never been a cool day”. It’s so hard to make ice here that frozen bottles of water set you back R20 a pop, which you will gladly pay to suck on something cool. A proud Afrikaans heritage oozes through the hotel and the black and white photographs covering the walls. Mrs Kloppers, originally from (South Africa's)  Eastern Cape (small world) trained as a taxidermist and has stuffed many of the trophies which loom over us as we order our cool drinks from the bar. After lunch Innocent, Trymore (cook) and Zanele's (driver) stories of overlanding client’s ridiculous questions and expectations, like knowing "what time it will rain exactly?" or "Where are the lions?" have us falling out of our chairs.

The Smell of Rain

The Namibian terrain and climate change quickly and dramatically around us as we venture off on the truck across Namibia. Different smells fill the air here but the smell of a Namibian thunderstorm is something to be appreciated. We are barely 20 minutes out of scorching Seeheim when we are hit by our first glorious downpour.

Going Swimming

Kim’s ball-to-the-wall attitude makes putting our tent up tricky but hilarious to watch. By the final peg we are both brown in mud resembling soldiers in fatigues. The mud is easily washed away with a quick dive into the warm Konkiep Lapa Rest Camp pool. We all huddle under the thatch Lapa where we spend the rest of the evening admiring the sheets of water coming down around us.

Stay Away from the Papsack

One of the girls is tipsy as a tart after sampling 2 glasses of South Africa’s infamous Overmeer box wine (‘papsack’) she was convinced to buy earlier today in the historical town of Bethanie, the first town colonised by the Germans in Namibia. A few of our travelling group enjoy a camping-style swim when they are forced to rescue their belongings from their flooded tents. Nothing can dampen our excitement to reach the Namib Naukluft National Park tomorrow though and see its enormous and vibrant coloured sea of towering sand dunes, Namibia’s iconic attraction. The magical sound of rain hitting the canvas tent carries us off to sleep before tomorrow’s early start. Some have had to abandon their tents as lost causes in the rain and have opted to upgrade to bungalows

Day 6: Namib Naukluft National Park

Catherine, Dan and I are up before the sun to hike up a deceivingly steep hill which proves how embarrassingly unfit I am. The climb is great fun even though my lungs are heaving like a chronic emphysema patient whilst my slow pace is holding up poor Catherine behind me.

Getting Stuck in the Mud

The Namibia’s awesome and fast-changing terrains whizz past the window. We pass through raining red desert expanses, savannah plains, mind-boggling green rocky outcrops and back to flat raining desert before the truck sinks deep into its first sludge pit. Freeing it from of the thick brown sludge leaves us dirty but proud at having successfully rescued our mud covered truck with a little (read a lot) of help from the guides.

Dreamy Desert Visions

As we turn in towards Sossusvlei Lodge on the edge of the Namib Naukluft National Park we all do a double-take at what we see. Red oxidized dunes which foreground purple jagged mountains in the distance surrounded by golden savannah plains. This place looks as though someone has copy-pasted a Mars landscape into the middle of the Namib Desert. Trymore prepares Sadza (a maize meal pap) for us to taste along with chicken innards and gravy whilst we recuperate from the truck drive under the shade of a oddly-shaped acacia tree. A small group of us go for a 2 hour mountain hike up a steep rocky mountain face to see the beauty of the desert floor stretching out before us in one infinite expanse. Exhausted and happy, we spend the rest of the afternoon watching ground squirrels scurry around camp and listen to the tunes of the social weaver birds overhead. The darkness of the desert lets us all disappear to bed early, dreaming of spending tomorrow surrounded by the beautiful sand towers and desert of Dune 45 and Sossuvlei. Stay tuned for the next installment! For information about overlanding in Africa or to find out more about this trip, contact the team at OverlandingAfrica.com.