Dates: 01 November 2009 to 31 October 2010 (6 days / 5 nights)
Cost: Per Person Sharing ZAR 30 000.00 / Single Supplement Per Person Per Tour ZAR 2 550.00
Maximum Group Size: 8
Includes: Breakfasts, light lunches, snacks, dinners - alcoholic and non‐alcoholic beverages - Charter flight out with a minimum of 4 pax.
Drive from Swakopmund (along the skeleton coast) on a journey through incredible landscapes and communities - making your way towards the perennial Kunene River, the border between Namibia and Angola. Meet the Himba and Herero people of the far north-west of Namibia - and experience a land that’s bigger and more beautiful than anything you have ever imagined.
The Namibian wildlife through years of careful conservation initiative and care are once again becoming plentiful; as it was in the days of these communities ancestors. The Namibian government has entrusted these communities with custodianship of the animals - and other natural resources - taken advantage of in this region in the past.
You will travel as their guests and will be enthralled by one of the most authentic safari experiences on offer in Africa - knowing all the while that your presence is making conservation sustainable for the people who live in this vast region.
Please click the more information button below to view the detailed itinerary - or alternatively contact us and arrange for the Katiti Kunene Conservancy Safari to be added to a range of other specialised itineraries in and around Namibia.
- Experience stress relieving solitude.
- Watch free roaming wildlife in a wild land without fences.
- Meet and hear the stories of the conservancy game guards, the men who protect the desert wildlife – black rhino, desert adapted elephant, giraffe, gemsbok, springbok, lion, leopard and cheetah.
- Go on guided wildlife and nature walks, including rhino tracking with conservancy game guards.
- Visit local traditional leaders and see how conservancy staff and members live and work. Hear the real problems and their local solutions.
- Enjoy a traditional meat feast and taste desert goat. Guests will be expected to join in the singing and dancing and share songs from their own country.
- Highlights may include taking part in the annual harvest of commiphora resin – the perfume plant or myrrh made famous by the Bible’s three wise men.
- Hear how IRDNC, the local support NGO, has assisted conservancies to earn more than N$250 000 each year by marketing this valuable product to top cosmetic companies.
- Visit Wereldsend, historic base camp of IRDNC from where the now national community-based conservation program was piloted in the early 1980s.
- Watch, day by day, as the story of one of Africa’s most enduring community-based conservation programs unfolds, and meet the people who have made it work on the ground.
- Enjoy quality campfire cuisine, cold beer and fine wines while staying in conservancy owned campsites.
- Spend a night or two in the first Himba-owned luxury tented camp on a remote hilltop where you can see forever.
Please click the more information button below to view the detailed itinerary - or alternatively contact us using the Quick Enquiry Form below for arrangements and bookings.
Day 1: We start early morning from Swakopmund and travel along the unique Skeleton Coast providing a superb contrast of dunes and gravel plains to our right and the Atlantic Ocean on our left. Dependent on the weather and light you may notice the kaleidoscope of colours created by the mineral deposits. Also stop a few minutes to look at the fascinating lichen fields or a shipwreck along the way. One of the world’s most inhospitable waterless areas, experience the forbidding landscape and imagine how those early sailors shipwrecked here must have despaired once they thought they had safely reached land. Later we turn east into central Damaraland, where we bush camp in the ruggedly beautiful Torra.
Conservancy or, depending on availability, camp at Wereldsend, historic base camp of IRDNC (Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation) from where the now national community‐based conservation program was piloted in the early 1980s. See the graveyard of bones, a reminder of the massive commercial poaching of the 70s and early 1980s that came close to wiping out the desert adapted elephant, black rhino and other megafauna. Hear how rural communities helped turn this situation round.
Day 2: An early start with a Torra Conservancy game guard looking for desertadapted black rhino and other fascinating animals and plants. Later we head north via the village of Sesfontein (which means six springs). Our night is spent at Sesfontein Conservancy’s Ganamub Mountain Camp, built on a hillside among granite boulders. Immerse yourself in the sounds, scents and flavours of an African night around a crackling campfire, knowing your presence is making conservation sustainable for the people and animals who share this vast region.
Day 3: We drive down the Ganamub into the dry bed of the Hoanib River, a linear oasis with majestic Ana, Leadwood and Camelthorn trees marking its course. Along the way we search for elephants, lions, giraffe, oryx and other wildlife which seasonally use this ephemeral river’s resources. We then head north across magnificent landscape towards the 3 568 square kilometre Puros Conservancy. This vast area, with a population of less than 300 Himba and Herero herders, is one of the conservancies that own our company and we will be hosted here tonight. Spend the evening around the campfire in the Puros Conservancy Campsite, where elephants may stroll past your tent. Chat to our conservancy host, who will bring us up to date with conservancy activities and village life. This is a good opportunity, if you are interested, to obtain insights into the real conservation problems and their local solutions.
Day 4: We take a scenic drive up the Hoarusib River, cross the flank of the Etendeka Mountains and descend into the Khumib dry riverbed. Our route, through dramatic landscapes, passes small Himba settlements and we may see goats browsing with springbok nearby or a line of ostrich high‐stepping past peacefully grazing cattle. Our destination for the next two nights is Namibia’s first Himba‐owned tented camp, on a hilltop with a view that will take your breath away. KCS helped fund and build this camp which is owned by Orupembe Conservancy (another co‐owner of our company) and our guests have exclusive use. The camp is due to be completed towards the end of April/May 2010. Until then we will stay at Orupembe Conservancy’s Marble Campsite, an attractive venue on the banks of yet another dry river bed. Enjoy a solar heated shower, meet our conservancy hosts and spend a quiet evening at the fire talking to Himba game guards or conservancy staff.
Day 5: After an early breakfast, we take a day trip into Marienfluss Conservancy, another owner of KCS. We traverse the rocky Hartmann’s Pass to Red Drum, a major intersection in the middle of nowhere! We drive down into the spectacular Marienfluss Valley. See the mysterious Fairy Circles and experience an unparalleled sense of space. Enjoy the solitude of remote plains dotted with ostrich, springbok and gemsbok. You may see giraffe, zebra and kudu.
Our route takes us to the perennial Kunene River, the border between Namibia and Angola. This incredible wild river, which has gouged its route through a desert, has its origin in the Angolan Highlands and abounds with crocodiles. It is a lifeline for both people and animals in Angola and Namibia. Elephants used to live here but were poached in the 1960s and 70s. The safety of elephants has been secured in the Hoanib and Hoarusib Rivers and now an ambitious elephant corridor project implemented by IRDNC and the conservancies, with BBC funding, hopes to entice these great beasts back to the Kunene River. Enjoy a picnic lunch on the banks of the Kunene River before we return to Marble Camp Site in Orupembe Conservancy for the night.
Day 6: After breakfast a member of the conservancy will give us an insight into the collection of resin/myrrh. Once the rainy season (usually in the months of December to April) is over, Himba women harvest resin from commiphora wildii – the perfume plant or myrrh made famous by the Bible’s three wise men. Hear how IRDNC, the local support NGO, has assisted conservancies to earn more than N$250 000 each year by sustainably marketing this valuable product to international cosmetic companies such as Estee Lauder. About mid morning we will take you to the landing strip where you will meet your pilot and aircraft. Enjoy a bird eye’s perspective of this incredible landscape on your flight back to Swakopmund, Walvis Bay or Windhoek.
