Crossing the oldest desert in the world on horseback is to experience central Namibia’s spectacularly fascinating contrasts: from Khomas Hochland Mountains and escarpment to the Kuiseb Canyon, Tinkas, Tumas and Welwitschia plains, Moon Valley, seasonal Swakop River, coastal dunes and the Atlantic Ocean. An experience of a lifetime!

Details

Windhoek to Windhoek: 11 days, 10 nights, 9 days riding (nearly 400 km from the central highlands to the Atlantic Ocean).

Itinerary:

Day 1: You will be met on arrival day at Windhoek airport (Hosea Kutako airport) and transferred to a specified B&B in Windhoek. Here you will meet the rest of your riding group for dinner and a safari representative will brief you about the ride.

Day 2: After breakfast you depart Windhoek on a transfer to the starting point of your ride (2-3 hours). After a light lunch you get to know your horses on the first ride. The evening will be spent at a tented camp or guesthouse, depending on circumstances, and no matter which a good meal and drinks will settle you all into the flow of the ride.

Day 3: We continue on your riding adventure: cross-country on game and cattle tracks through the bush savannah and plains with stunning views of endless hills and steep rock faces, in constantly changing colours. The night’s camping spent around a campfire in either a tent or stretch out under the stars.

Day 4: A long and exerting but particularly memorable day awaits you! You ride over tricky terrain, along dry riverbeds and on the tracks of mountain zebra, oryx and baboons. This is unspoiled countryside with stunning panoramic views... and you are sure to appreciate a hot shower and a good meal at the end of this day! Your camp is somewhere down the escarpment, remote and rugged on a Namibian desert farm.

Day 5: Another memorable day, riding to the fringe of the Namib Desert ever further away from your sentinel, the Gamsberg, the third highest mountain in Namibia. Sunset is usually stunning after another beautiful day.

Day 6: You enter the largest nature conservation area in Africa (an area as large as the British Isles). The Skeleton Coast Park, Namib Naukluft Park and Sperrgebiet Park extend along Namibia’s entire coastline (2000km) up to a width of some 100 km. You ride through the bizarre Kuiseb Canyon and camp at Aruvlei, the place where Henno Matin and his friend hid their car. Marvel at the incredibly beautiful African sunset and myriads of stars.

Day 7: A long, tough riding day and non-stop sunshine! See mountain zebra, oryx, ostrich, springbok and if you’re lucky some of the desert warthogs while crossing the desert’s gravel plains as the crow flies. Here it has been known for the mountain zebra to run alongside the group on one of your many canters. You stop at Ganab, a borehole that provides much-needed water for the game in the desert. Then you are off again, to Hotsas (Tinkas and Tumas plains).

Day 8: You canter happily towards Poacher's Turn and Marble Mountains, encountering strange shapes and mirages, fascinating survival devices of desert adapted creatures, infinite space and tremendous solitude.

Day 9: Continue through true desert landscape where you will see unique Welwitschia plants. Close to the coast you enter the spectacular Moon Valley. It is your last night on the ride and you camp out under the stars, around the campfire in the dry riverbed of the Swakop near Goanikontes.

Day 10: Joyfully ride along the Swakop valley until you reach the dunes and then at last the ocean shore at Swakopmund. Your first glimpse of a town in ten days! And the possibility of riding your horse for the last time along the beach!! For the night you stay in comfortable holiday chalets/guest houses and the horses enjoy their well-deserved rest in a sandy paddock. You meet for a farewell dinner in the evening.

Day 11: You all say goodbye at breakfast and you may return to Windhoek and Windhoek International Airport on a 4-5 hour transfer.

Be sure to return for another trip - to Damaraland and the Skeleton Coast, Africa’s Greatest Canyon onto the southern country border or into the Restricted Diamond area in the far west of Namibia!

Take note: Routes can be changed due to unpredictable weather (sandstorm!) and other unforeseen conditions!

To avoid the travelling time by road to Windhoek it is possible to make special road transfer to Walvis Bay International airport at the end of the ride, and then fly direct from Walvis to Johannesburg.

Additional attractions: Many guests extend their Namibia experience from this point with an add-on itinerary of the many exciting activities available from Swakopmund. Local attractions include the highest dunes in the world - the spectacular Sossusvlei. Go dune sand boarding, desert sky diving, dolphin cruising or surf fishing. If it's big game viewing you're after, take a short charter flight to world famous Etosha Pan and experience African luxury in a unique treetop camp or a desert fort.

Damaraland is a very spectacular part of the country, almost inaccessible, with amazing colours and vast open spaces that will blow your mind, ancient craters and remnants from prehistoric times, not to mention the forbidding Skeleton Coast. We may encounter elephant, rhino, cheetah and plains game or be caught by rivers in flood, all of which combines into a tremendous adventure.

Details:

Windhoek - Windhoek. 11 days, 10 nights, 7½ riding days, ½ day sightseeing famous rock engravings at Twyfelfontein (World Heritage Site), visit to cultural village and the seal colony at Cape Cross.

Itinerary:

Day 1: You will be met on arrival from Windhoek International airport (Hosea Kutako airport) and transferred to a specified B&B in Windhoek on this day. Here you will meet the rest of your riding group for dinner and a safari company representative to brief you about the ride.

Day 2: After an early breakfast the journey starts with a 7 hour transfer, lunch en route, to a camp near Twyfelfontein. Here you will meet the horses and crew, and go on a sunset ride if time permits.

Day 3: You will set off on a morning ride to familiarise you with your mount in the Aba-Huab area, where sandy plains invite good canters and interesting rock formations can be visited. The afternoon will include visiting a cultural village, the Twyfelfontein rock engravings and Sundowners at a local view point.

Day 4: You start riding west across endless plains with a good chance of seeing desert adapted game such as springbok and oryx. Occasionally the group follow Mopani treed dry river beds where kudu and ostrich lurk. You stop for a light lunch along a riverbed and after lunch continue over some rocky and some sandy hills to your camp at De Riet.

Day 5: You continue along the Huab River shaded with huge Ana trees, which provides a favourite food for the Desert Elephants, before you ride across another plain towards Mikberg to have lunch at the ‘cheetah tree’, followed by a long afternoon ride across the watershed with phenomenal vistas. Your camp is pitched at View Point where you enjoy the views and dramatic colours of Brandberg, Namibia’s highest mountain.

Day 6: From View Point you ride southwest towards the Ugab River. After lunch at Lion Head, you set off for a nice long canter. Later you move through a very narrow gorge, pass Soutfontein (Salt Fountain) and arrive at the Save the Rhino Camp near Brandberg West. This is a community run campsite to collect funds for the Save the Rhino project; it is really worth visiting their interesting information centre.

Day 7: You wind your way through reeds and kori bush thickets along the Ugab to Brakwasser, another place of brackish water. You then leave the Ugab River and ride up a deserted gorge with fascinating folded rockwalls. Camp is very enjoyable: shady, sheltered and special!

Day 8: You leave the Ugab tributary and enter another vast open plain with spectacular views of Brandberg. You enjoy some marvellous cantering and have lunch at the Quarry. The afternoon is a long ride across the stony plains towards the coast.

Day 9: You are on your way towards the Messum River and Messum Crater. Again there are open plains and happy canters - and spectacular panoramas.

Day 10: The last ride to arrive on the beach around lunchtime! This unpredictable shore is called the Skeleton Coast and the infamous easterly wind can either cause the temperatures warm enough for a swim or maybe whip up a sandstorm! You then drive to Cape Cross to view the seals and continue to your overnight accommodation at a lovely beach house in Henties Bay.

Day 11: Depart for Windhoek and Windhoek International Airport (a 5-6 hour transfer). Earliest possible flight departure time is 15:00.

Take note: Routes can be changed due to unpredictable weather and other unforeseen conditions!

Please note group ground transfers can also start and finish in Cape Town if requested.

Additional attractions: Many guests extend their Namibia experience from this point with an add-on itinerary. Stay a few extra days in Swakopmund where activities available include: dolphin cruises, scenic flights over the area, sand boarding, sky diving, desert tours, quad biking. Visit Etosha National Park before or after the ride for excellent African game viewing opportunities. Visit Sossosvlei sand dunes after the ride.

With a combination of dramatic canyon landscapes, spacious desert plains and the mighty Orange River, this ride offers the opportunity to experience both inaccessible Namibia and real wilderness areas, while riding without limitation. The Fish River Canyon area is world renowned as one of Africa's most magnificent sites; it is also the second largest canyon in the world. Riding begins in the upper Fish River canyon, before Nama Karoo plains invite you for endless canters, only to be stopped by the Orange/Gariep River, which forms the southern border of Namibia. Distances covered daily will vary between 20 and 50 kilometres.

This ride crosses over two private parks; Gondwana Park and Aussenkehr Park and together covering an area of about 237,000 ha, dedicated to conservation and tourism. These parks fall within the Name Karoo Desert biome and are on the fridge of the transitional area between Nama Karoo and Succulent Karoo, the Orange River basin as Aussenkehr being the most arid part of the Nama Karoo biome. Aussenkehr Park is also home to a small Namib Feral Horse population at Garub in the Namib Desert, relocated during the 1992 drought.

Details:

Windhoek-Windhoek: 11 days, 10 nights, 8 1/2 days riding, a visit to the main view point at the famous Fish River Canyon.

Itinerary:

Day 1: You will be met at Windhoek International Airport and transferred to a guest house/lodge in Windhoek for dinner bed and breakfast. Meet a safari representative and be briefed on the ride.

Day 2: After breakfast the group transfer leaves early, for the transfer to the Mule station which is your overnight stop. Meet your guides, crew, and horses and if time permits go on a short trial ride to familiarise horses with riders. That evening at Mule Station you will pack bare necessities for the next 2 nights into a small bag. Roads are inaccessible for the larger safari vehicles that meet up with you again on Day 5.

Day 3: The morning ride follows the 4x4 track to a place called Koelkrans (cool cliff) next to the Fish River where you take the welcome opportunity for a swim. In the afternoon you ride back out of the canyon to one of the most spectacular camp sites, called Horse Shoe Camp.

Day 4: From the edge of the canyon, down zebra paths, along rocky tributaries down to the Fish River. Ride along the river to a lunch spot at Sandy Beach, the last opportunity to swim in the Fish River. You make your way up and over the mountain on a steep track, to the unexpected oasis of Canyon Outpost in the Gaap River.

Day 5: A long, fast and exhilarating day’s ride across the black limestone plateau during the morning and then through endless savannah into an area strewn with granite boulders and dotted with charismatic Quiver trees, to arrive at Mountain Camp. Enjoy the luxury of en-suite bathrooms, beds with linen and a very special evening.

Day 6: You visit the Main Viewpoint overlooking the Fish River Canyon before lunch back at Mountain Camp. Winding through milk bushes across the plains to Kanebis, you will most probably spot some game along the way and enjoy the evening stories around the open campfire.

Day 7: Ever changing scenery awaits you, a ‘Smarties box’ of geological formations and depending on rainfall, this day could deliver good game viewing. Camp against a rock wall at Fourie se Gat (a hole dug by Mr. Fourie) and enjoy an unforgettable sunset.

Day 8: Enthusiastic riders can ride along a dirt road through granite outcrops. Alternately, travel by motor vehicle to Ais-Ais hot springs along this same road, to spend the morning relaxing in warm water while your horse runs loose to the lunch spot at Mnt. Elena. The topography unfolds into wide-open plains and the afternoon ride will cross some of the best riding plains in the world, to your camp in the dry Gamkab River.

Day 9: Riding over endless plains you can roam freely in a vast environment to isolated sand dunes in Aussenkehr Nature Park, then on again to a camp surrounded by stacked boulders, which could only have been the work of giants.

Day 10: The last ride. Stunning contrasts again; ride from the wide-open plains, where you could encounter the Wild Horses, into the very narrow Kings Throne canyon and on to a viewpoint, surprisingly revealing the Orange/Gariep River flanked by vineyards in an otherwise barren landscape. Another canter and some strolling through the vineyards to finally untack at Norotshama River Resort, on the banks of the Orange River.

Day 11: Depart on a 7/8-hour road transfer for Cape Town.

Take note: Routes can be changed due to unpredictable weather and other unforeseen conditions!

Please note there is an option for groups to fly in and out of Cape Town if preferred. This does mean a longer road transfer to the start point of the ride, and the above price does not include the first night accommodation etc in Cape Town but starts with the pick up from a guest house in Cape Town on the first morning of the itinerary with the road transfer to the overnight stop on the Orange river enroute to the start point of the ride.

Additional attractions: Many guests extend their Namibia experience from this point with an add-on itinerary. Guided canoe safaris on the Orange River, or if it's big game viewing you're after, a charter flight will take you to world famous Etosha Pan, for unmatched big game viewing and a few nights of luxury in a unique treetop camp, or a desert fort.