Cape Town and Namibia: Table Mountain, the Winelands, Sossusvlei and Etosha

Arrive in Cape Town

Cape Town International Airport to your hotel in central Cape Town

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Cape Town
• Environ 30 min de route

Après-midi

Try to land by mid-afternoon; the V&A Waterfront's working harbour, with Table Mountain behind it, is the easy first walk. At about 5 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the days ahead: why the Cape Town days are ordered around the wind, how the flight to Namibia works, what to pack for a cold desert dawn and how the long Namibian drives are paced.

Soir

Then we walk together to a welcome dinner of Cape food and South African wine at a local restaurant.

Compris

• Pick-up at Cape Town International Airport (CPT)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner

Table Mountain and the Bo-Kaap

Up Table Mountain by cableway, then the Bo-Kaap

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Cape Town
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

We start early to ride the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway on the first cars of the morning, before the queues and while the summit is most often clear; first-car times change with the season. The floor of the car turns as it climbs, so everyone gets the view. On top, easy paths loop round the plateau more than 1,000 m above the city, looking across Table Bay to Robben Island, along the Twelve Apostles and down onto Lion's Head. If wind closes the cableway, which happens often, we swap today with day 3. Back down, a local guide walks us through the Bo-Kaap, the hillside quarter of brightly painted houses, cobbled lanes and mosques shaped by the Cape Malay community, many of them descended from people brought to the Cape, often enslaved, from the 17th century.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down Cape Malay meal in the neighbourhood.

Soir

The afternoon and evening are free: the V&A Waterfront, the Zeitz MOCAA gallery or, booked ahead, the Robben Island ferry.

Compris

• Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, return ticket
• Walk on the summit plateau with your guide
• Bo-Kaap walk with a local guide
• Sit-down Cape Malay lunch in the Bo-Kaap

Activités en option

• Robben Island ferry and museum tour (book well ahead; price shown at booking)

Penguins, Cape Point and Chapman's Peak

Cape Town down the False Bay side to Boulders Beach and Cape Point, back by Chapman's Peak Drive and Hout Bay

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Cape Town
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal by the sea. In the afternoon we drive back up the Atlantic side on Chapman's Peak Drive, when the sun is on the cliffs, and through Hout Bay to the city by about 5 pm.

Compris

• Boulders Beach penguin colony, with the park fee
• Cape Point, with the Flying Dutchman funicular
• The Cape of Good Hope, with the Table Mountain National Park fee
• Sit-down lunch on the peninsula
• Chapman's Peak Drive, with the toll

Franschhoek and Stellenbosch

Cape Town to Franschhoek, then over the Helshoogte Pass to Stellenbosch

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Stellenbosch
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

We leave Cape Town after breakfast for the Cape Winelands, about an hour and a quarter east to Franschhoek, a valley of vineyards closed in by mountains on three sides, settled by French Huguenot refugees from 1688.

Après-midi

We taste at a wine estate in the morning, with time in the cellar and among the vines, then sit down to a long lunch in the valley; non-drinkers get grape juice or a food pairing where the estate offers one. In the middle of the afternoon we cross the Helshoogte Pass, about 30 km, to Stellenbosch, a town founded in 1679 with oak-lined streets and whitewashed Cape Dutch gables. Your guide walks you down Dorp Street to the Braak, the old town square, and a second tasting at an estate just outside town closes the afternoon.

Soir

Tonight is our only night here, and dinner is free in the old town, which is easy to walk. Pack tonight with the flight in mind: tomorrow we fly to Namibia.

Compris

• Wine tasting at an estate in the Franschhoek valley
• Long sit-down lunch in Franschhoek
• Guided walk through old Stellenbosch: Dorp Street and the Braak
• Second wine tasting near Stellenbosch

Fly to Windhoek

Stellenbosch to Cape Town International Airport, fly to Hosea Kutako International Airport, then Windhoek

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Windhoek
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

An unhurried breakfast, then about 45 minutes to Cape Town International Airport for the flight north to Windhoek, about two hours in the air. This flight replaces the long road the overland trips take through the Cederberg, across the Orange River and through the south of Namibia, about 1,500 km on the most direct road and three or four days in a vehicle. Your guide flies with you and handles check-in. We land at Hosea Kutako International Airport (WDH), where we clear Namibian immigration, then meet our Namibian driver and vehicle for the 45 km into Windhoek, across thornbush hills.

Soir

The city sits at about 1,650 m, so the evening air is cool. After checking in we take a short walk in the centre: the Christuskirche, a Lutheran church finished in 1910, the Tintenpalast, now the parliament building, and the old railway station, where an early narrow-gauge steam locomotive stands on display. Dinner tonight is together at a restaurant in town, with game dishes and lighter choices.

Compris

• Transfer to Cape Town International Airport
• Flight from Cape Town to Windhoek, economy
• Transfer from Hosea Kutako International Airport to Windhoek
• Short walk in central Windhoek with your guide
• Dinner in Windhoek

Down the escarpment to Sesriem

Windhoek south to Rehoboth, then west on gravel to Sesriem

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Sesriem
• Environ 5 h de route

Après-midi

We stop for coffee and photographs on the way and for a sit-down lunch at a farm stop, then reach our lodge near Sesriem by about 3 pm, with time to rest out of the heat. At about 5 pm, as the light softens, we walk into Sesriem Canyon, a narrow gorge cut by the Tsauchab River; its name comes from the six leather thongs settlers once tied together to haul water up from the pools.

Soir

Dinner is at the lodge, under a very dark sky.

Compris

• Drive from Windhoek to Sesriem with your guide
• Sit-down lunch on the way
• Sesriem Canyon walk in the late afternoon

Sossusvlei at dawn and Deadvlei

Sesriem gate to Dune 45, Sossusvlei and Deadvlei, and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Sesriem
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

We leave the lodge in the dark with coffee and a packed breakfast. The park gate at Sesriem opens around sunrise and Dune 45 is about 45 km inside, so we reach it within the first hour, while the light is still low and the east faces of the dunes glow orange; if our lodge is inside the gate, as we aim for, we can be on the road earlier. These dunes belong to the Namib Sand Sea, listed by UNESCO in 2013. Dune 45 stands over 170 m high: climb its ridge, 30 minutes to an hour on soft sand, or watch from the bottom. Breakfast is at its foot. At the end of the tar road we take the 4x4 shuttle over the last sandy 5 km, then walk about a kilometre across the sand to Deadvlei, a white clay pan of dead camel thorn trees under some of the tallest dunes in the Namib.

Après-midi

We are back at the lodge for lunch before the midday heat, and the afternoon is free for the pool, a nap or a sundowner.

Compris

• Namib-Naukluft Park entry at the Sesriem gate
• Dune 45 in the early light, with breakfast at the foot of the dune
• 4x4 shuttle to Sossusvlei
• Deadvlei with your guide
• Sossusvlei pan

Solitaire, the passes and the coast

Sesriem to Solitaire, over the Gaub and Kuiseb passes to Walvis Bay, then up the coast to Swakopmund

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Swakopmund
• Environ 6 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Walvis Bay, where flamingos usually feed on the lagoon, and the last 35 km run between the dunes and the Atlantic to Swakopmund, arriving at about 4:30 pm.

Soir

Dinner tonight is your choice in town.

Compris

• Coffee stop in Solitaire
• The Tropic of Capricorn sign and the Kuiseb Canyon viewpoint
• Sit-down lunch in Walvis Bay
• The flamingos on the Walvis Bay lagoon

Sandwich Harbour by 4x4

Swakopmund to Walvis Bay, then by 4x4 along the lagoon and the coast to Sandwich Harbour, and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Swakopmund
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we drive the 35 km to Walvis Bay and change into 4x4s with a local guide for Sandwich Harbour, a lagoon inside the Namib-Naukluft Park where the dunes run straight down into the Atlantic. The route follows the edge of the Walvis Bay lagoon past the salt pans, where flamingos and pelicans feed, then out along the beach and over the dunes, and whether we drive the beach or go over the top depends on the tide, so the operator sets the start time a few days ahead. From the high dunes you look down on the lagoon on one side and the surf on the other.

Après-midi

Lunch is a light meal set out in the dunes. We are back in Swakopmund by early afternoon, and the rest of the day is free. Swakopmund was founded as a German colonial harbour in 1892, and its gabled old centre is a few blocks from the beach.

Soir

Seafood is the local strength for dinner.

Compris

• Sandwich Harbour 4x4 tour with a local guide, with the park permit
• The Walvis Bay lagoon and salt pans
• Light lunch in the dunes

Activités en option

• Sandboarding in the dunes
• Quad biking in the dunes
• Scenic flight over the Namib and the Skeleton Coast
• Living Desert tour in the dunes south of Swakopmund

North along the coast to Damaraland

Swakopmund to Henties Bay, inland past the Brandberg to Uis, then north and west on gravel to Twyfelfontein

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Twyfelfontein
• Environ 6.5 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Uis, an old tin-mining town below it, which breaks the drive in two. The afternoon road runs north and west into Damaraland proper: red and purple ridges, flat-topped hills and the odd herd of springbok. Near the end we stop at Burnt Mountain, a dark ridge of shale baked by molten rock, and the Organ Pipes, a gully of angular dolerite columns, then reach our lodge in the Twyfelfontein area by about 5 pm. Damaraland has almost no artificial light, so the stars are as good as in the Namib.

Compris

• Drive from Swakopmund to Damaraland with your guide
• Views of the Brandberg on the road to Uis
• Sit-down lunch in Uis
• Burnt Mountain and the Organ Pipes

Twyfelfontein and into Etosha

Twyfelfontein to the Petrified Forest, Khorixas and Outjo, then Andersson Gate and Okaukuejo

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Okaukuejo (Etosha)
• Environ 5.5 h de route

Soir

A full day, about 360 km and five and a half hours of driving, because this trip gives Damaraland one night and Etosha lies far to the east; we start early and break it at Twyfelfontein, the Petrified Forest and lunch. We are at Twyfelfontein when it opens, before the heat and the tour vehicles. In 2007 it became Namibia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, for one of the largest groups of rock engravings in Africa, cut into red sandstone by hunter-gatherers over thousands of years: giraffe, rhino, lion, animal tracks and geometric marks. A local site guide, required here, leads a walk of about an hour. Next is the Petrified Forest, where tree trunks around 280 million years old lie turned to stone, with welwitschia plants among them. At Khorixas the road turns to tar for Outjo and a sit-down lunch, then about an hour north to Andersson Gate. The last 17 km to Okaukuejo we take slowly as a first game drive. Dinner is at our camp; we aim for the rest camp, whose waterhole is floodlit after dark.

Compris

• Twyfelfontein rock engravings with a local site guide
• The Petrified Forest with a local guide
• Sit-down lunch in Outjo
• Etosha National Park entry and a first game drive to Okaukuejo

A full day in Etosha

Okaukuejo and the waterholes of western and central Etosha

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Okaukuejo (Etosha)
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

Etosha's gates open at sunrise, and we are out with them in an open safari vehicle with an Etosha guide, when lions are still on the move and the air is cold. In the dry months animals gather at the waterholes, so we work a loop of them on the plains near Okaukuejo, such as Nebrownii, Gemsbokvlakte and Olifantsbad, and out to the edge of the pan, a white saltpan of about 4,700 square kilometres that shimmers to the horizon. Springbok, zebra, wildebeest, gemsbok and giraffe are almost always about; elephant, lion and black rhino often are; cheetah and leopard are a matter of luck.

Après-midi

We are back at camp for lunch and a rest through the heat, when the animals rest too.

Soir

In the late afternoon we go out again for the best light of the day and are back inside the camp gate by sunset under park rules. Then a farewell dinner together, and if we are in the Okaukuejo rest camp, the floodlit waterhole is a short walk away.

Compris

• Morning game drive in an open safari vehicle with an Etosha guide
• Late-afternoon game drive
• Farewell dinner

Etosha to Windhoek and home

Okaukuejo to Andersson Gate, Outjo, Otjiwarongo and Okahandja, then Windhoek and Hosea Kutako International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Environ 6 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Otjiwarongo, and in the afternoon we stop briefly in Okahandja at the woodcarvers' market, where carvers work and sell at the roadside. Your guide uses the long road for the story of modern Namibia, from the colonial wars to independence in 1990. We reach Hosea Kutako International Airport (WDH) at about 4 pm, so book a flight leaving after about 6 pm; allow two hours at the airport for an international departure.

Soir

If your flight is tomorrow, we drop you at a hotel in Windhoek instead and can book the extra night.

Compris

• Drive from Etosha to Windhoek with your guide
• Coffee stop in Outjo
• Sit-down lunch in Otjiwarongo
• The Okahandja woodcarvers' market
• Drop-off at Hosea Kutako International Airport (WDH) or a Windhoek hotel