TRIP ITINERARY SUMMARY

This is an 14- day introduction (11 days on the ground) trip for those riders experienced on riding on good gravel roads. In stating that, it is actually a combination of 30% good tar roads and 70% fair to good gravel roads through some of the most amazing scenery I have had the pleasure to travel.

Leaving Windhoek we travel north to Etosha National Park, (on tar road for around 5 hours). Etosha is teeming with wildlife and our accommodations will be at a very pleasant lodge. During the 2 days we are there, you will enjoy two 4-hour (approx hours) game viewing trips into the park using the lodge’s specially equipped game viewing vehicles. Among many other animals we can expect to see, there are lion, elephant, giraffe, oryx, zebra, and with some luck, rhino and leopard.There will be opportunities to do some motorcycling outside of the park and visit some really neat areas, including Hoba Meteorite, the largest intact piece of meteorite that has been found on earth dating back 80,000 years and weighing some 80 tonnes.

We then head south-west through some incredible desert scenery into Damaraland, where some of the oldest cave paintings are to be found; it has been described as a gallery of rock art and dates back thousands of years. These were probably painted by the San Bushmen hunters, some depictions are of animals no longer found in this area. We will stay at a charming camp, in bungalows with en suite bathrooms and the food here is incredible, the charm of this place it has no electricity, and everything is heated, cooked and prepared by fire and lit by oil lanterns. There is nothing around for miles and the stars seem so brilliant you feel you can reach up and touch them. We will do day rides to some great sites in and around here.

We leave here and head to the coast, where the ocean meets the desert. Today’s ride will consist of the morning going through the canyons and desert mountains on gravel roads and the last 250kms on a great tar road. To the west, the Atlantic Ocean, and to the east , the desert . A spectacular sight to behold with red and white sand exchanging places on the road. We will visit one of the worlds largest populations of fur seals know as the Cape Cross Seal colony.

After lunch at Henties bay, we will ride into Swakopmund, a great old Germanic town with wide tar roads and a real old town, slow- feel about it. The architecture is superb, and there’s a great variety of things to do including museums, to quad biking and sandboarding with just about anything in between. Our accommodations for the duration here is at a lodge built on stiltz overlooking the Swakop River.

We then ride south to the Namib Nakuluft Park, through Walvis Bay onto sand roads into the world’s oldest desert and the home of the some of the largest sand dunes growing 300m above the river bed. Here we will stay at the entrance to the park where I have never seen such an array of colours during sunrises and sunsets. The Desert Homestead is an oasis in the heart of the desert, where time is said to stop. There are opportunities to take guided walks or horseback trips or just relax by the pool.
We then head back to Windhoek, in time for dinner at Joes beer garden—a place like no other, and something you will talk about for a very long time!