NSE5

Day 1. Fly from Windhoek to Swakopmund from where you are transferred to the Swakopmund Hotel & Entertainment Center where you will overnight. Enjoy a visit to the seal colony at Cape Cross. L/D

Swakopmund is a popular place for surfers, anglers and beach lovers from all over southern Africa because of its great beaches and pleasant summers. Its continental atmosphere lies in its art nouveau buildings, dating back to the turn of the century. There are eleven national monuments worth visiting, including the railway station, a magnificently ornate building. The Swakopmund Museum captures the colorful past and highlights the desert flora and fauna as well as the area's rich marine life. The tannery which manufactures the well known kudu leather shoes, can be visited as well as the local brewery which produces some of Namibia's finest beers.. Other features of Swakopmund includes a sheltered bathing spot at Palm Beach, an Olympic-sized heated swimming pool and a grassy golf course in a desert setting.

Approximately 60 miles north of Swakopmund is the Cape Cross Seal Reserve. Here the Portuguese navigator, Diogo Cao (the first European to set foot so far south on the African continent) planted a cross in 1486. A great herd of Cape Fur Seals flourish in the cold waters of the Benguela Current. Numerous islets and isolated coves have become natural nurseries for their young.

Day 2. Depart on a full day Desert Tour visiting the dunes of the Namib, Swakop Canyon, the Moonlandscape and the Oasis of the Goanikontes. A picnic lunch is enjoyed on the way. Overnight at the Swakopmund Hotel & Entertainment Center. B/L/D

For the connoisseur of scenery, atmosphere and the unusual, there is nothing quite like the Namib. It has a quality of timelessness, and, depending on the time of day, there is a shift of moods, a play of light and shadow, giving desert landscapes entirely new tints and textures. The Welwitchia Nature Drive ranges from vast plains where herds of oryx, springbok and zebra roam, to the surrealistic landscape of the badlands, known as the "Valley of the Moon" in the Swakop River valley. Also in the valley is the small oasis of Goanikontes, its vivid green vegetation in startling contrast to the harsh desert landscape. Examples of the Welwitchia mirabilis, that hardy survivor of the desert, can be seen along this route. They appear to be small dead bushes, but with the addition of fog droplets magically burst into life and "bloom". This strangest plant of the Namib may live for as long as 2,000 years!

Day 3. Morning at leisure until you transfer to the airport for your flight to Etosha National Park. Enjoy an afternoon game drive. Overnight at Mokuti Lodge. B/L/D

Day 4. Enjoy an early morning and afternoon game drive. Overnight at Mokuti Lodge. B/L/D

Etosha National Park is widely regarded as one of the best game reserves in Africa to closely observe a startling diversity of animal and bird life, including the endangered black rhino, gemsbok, rare black-faced impala and tiny Damara dik-dik. For most of the year wildlife is forced to congregate around the park's isolated waterholes and the landscape is flat and sparsely vegetated. This is cause for excellent game viewing. The fact that Etosha has an exceptionally high proportion of predators to herbivores, offers visitors a greater opportunity of witnessing confrontations between predators and their prey. Etosha Pan, from which the park derives its name ("great white place of dry water") and covering about one fifth of its 13,400 square miles, is an extensive flat depression. This great, white expanse is a place of shimmering mirages and large herds of game.

Day 5. After an early morning game drive you transfer to the airport for your return flight to Windhoek. B only

B/L/D= Brekfast/Lunch/Dinner

INCLUSIONS AND EXCLUSIONS Namibia a la carte NSE5

Day 1. Included: airport transfer, accommodation at Swakopmund Hotel & Entertainment Center, lunch and dinner, tour

Excluded: breakfast

Day 2. Included: tour, accommodation at Swakopmund Hotel & Entertainment Center, all meals

Day 3. Included: airport transfer, accommodation at Mokuti Lodge, all meals, game drive

Day 4. Inlcuded: game drives, accommodation at Mokuti Lodge, all meals

Day 5. Inlcuded; game drive, breakfast, airport transfer

Cape Town, South Africa, Mount Nelson, Cape Town, South Africa, Mount Nelson, Cape Town, South Africa, Mount Nelson