We will drive out to the internationally known N/a’an ku se Wildlife Sanctuary. Located about 50 km to the east of Windhoek. N/a’an ku se is a sanctuary dedicated to the rehabilitation of sick, injured and orphaned animals. The ultimate focus is to reintroduce these sometimes rare and endangered species back into their natural habitat so that they can live life wild and free. Sadly though, in many cases, this is not possible. Some of the animals that come to N/a’an ku se would not, ever again, be able to fend for themselves in their native yet cruel natural environment. Instead, they take ‘’early retirement’’ and find themselves a permanent home at N/a’an ku se.

You will be collected from your accommodation within the Windhoek city limits at 07:00 and transferred to Chameleon Safaris Head Quarters for a short pre-departure meeting. Heading north from Windhoek, we stop briefly at the small town of Otjiwarongo to gather some last-minute supplies before continuing on to Etosha and we enjoy a light lunch pack whilst “on the move”. We enter Etosha National Park and game drive our way to our overnight accommodation at Okaukuejo Camp.

We have the whole day to explore Etosha and we want to make the most of it. The park gates open at sunrise and we aim to be on our way just as the sun breaches the horizon. Early morning is usually a productive time for game viewing and first thing in the morning is a good time to catch big cats returning from the hunt. Full day game driving in Etosha National Park. Exciting the park late afternoon to our accommodation for tonight.

After breakfast, we aim to be on the road by 07:30 today. We are heading for the Skeleton Coast and we are taking the scenic route. We first head south on the main road, passing the small town of Outjo, then onwards towards the west and picking up the gravel road as we travel through an area known as Damaraland.

Departing Swakopmund in the mid-morning we head east into the desert. We first cross the Namib gravel plains, large areas of flat and seemingly barren terrain broken up by huge mountain inselbergs. We have two mountain passes to traverse this afternoon, first is the mighty Kuiseb Pass and we follow the road from the top of the mountains, dropping steeply down into the canyon carved over eons by the Kuiseb River on its way to debouch into the ocean at the port town of Walvis Bay.

Sunrise in the dunes is the name of the game this morning and that means a pre-dawn start and a very early breakfast. The best time to photograph the dunes is around sunrise and sunset. This is when you can see towering sand dunes illuminated a glowing orange, apricot red on one side and swathed in shadow on the other. The depth of field is amazing at this time of day.

Our last day today but excitement is still on the menu. We head back to Solitaire and join an open vehicle to visit one of their local conservation projects, in this case, cheetah. Solitaire is home to a number of cheetah that, for different reasons, are unable to be released back into the wild. for different reasons. This excursion allows us the chance to learn all about the cheetah, and the work done by local conservation projects, and also get some incredible photos of the world’s fastest land mammal. After the activity, we sample the apple pie that has made this homestead famous