Damaraland 4x4

Well rested and relaxed, today we will deal with a detailed travel briefing and a thorough briefing on the 4x4 vehicles, GPS and radio devices. Then we go for an approx. 100 km inroduction tour, where you can familiarise yourself with the traffic, road conditions and technology so that we can start the tour well prepared the next morning.

After a hearty breakfast, we set off again today towards ‘civilisation’, passing the famous Tropic of Capricorn and continuing over a pass through the wild and rugged landscape of the Gaub River to the Kuiseb Canyon. The rough gravel road of the Kuiseb Pass leads to the northern part of the huge Namib-Naukluft National Park, and the route across it to the west leads to the cool Atlantic Ocean. The lonely expanse, which appears so lifeless, surprises us again and again with oryx antelopes, springboks, ostriches and mountain zebras, which can sometimes cross our ‘pad’ at high speed. Only immediately before the coast do high dune belts open up again and the air becomes noticeably fresher. In Swakopmund, we check into a good hotel and have the opportunity to explore the historic coastal town and dip our feet in the cold sea.

The Erongo gave us a first taste of the Damaraland that lies ahead. Heading west, we leave this mountainous landscape behind us. When the air is clear, the Brandberg is already visible on the horizon. But first, we descend again onto tiny farm tracks through the bush, passing small Damara settlements with their cattle roaming freely. Over the Spitzkoppe in the morning light, we then head north and cross the open landscape and the wide riverbed of the Omarurus to reach our next destination via the mining town of Uis – the lower-lying Ugab River Valley on the edge of the mountain range, where our next lodge is located in a fabulous landscape, surrounded by mighty ana trees. A place that desert elephants also particularly like to visit...

Twyfelfontein is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to thousands of rock paintings and engravings. Visiting them would exceed our time frame, but you can still admire some engravings on a large rock slab right in front of the lodge. After a hearty breakfast, we continue northeast today, with diverse tracks through remote landscapes ahead of us. We leave the lodge off the public roads through the beautiful area of the Aba Huab River to the large Huab main riverbed, an important catchment area for desert elephants and rhinos. Via Palmwag, a larger gravel road takes us through table mountain landscapes to the Grootberg Pass on the Etendeka Plateau, which will offer us great views.

It's hard to leave this place, but the tour still has some great routes and experiences to offer, so today we're heading towards Vingerklip Lodge. We stay off the usual gravel roads used by most tourists in this region for most of the time and, for the sake of driving pleasure, take all the smaller farm roads that lead us through Damara settlement areas via Khorixas to the Ugab terraces. The Ugab River has literally carved up the landscape here, and table-like elevations make this landscape appear strange and different once again, especially the rock finger, which rises up in a bizarre shape and rests on what appears to be a small base – from our accommodation today, the once again extremely cosy Vingerklip Lodge, we can admire the ‘Vingerklip’ in the evening and morning light.

Now we have the last leg of this journey ahead of us: after breakfast, we head south through beautiful mountain landscapes and central farmland to the small town of Omaruru. From here, the route continues on larger gravel roads through the old mission town of Otjimbingwe, located on the wide Swakop River Valley. From here, we return to the hilly Khomas Highlands and finally to Windhoek to our Gravel Travel base, the Windhoek Mountain Lodge. Our team awaits us with a well-chilled sundowner, with which we bid farewell to the sun and a last, great day of driving. Dinner offers us a delicious ‘braai’, where we can bring the tour to a cosy close with photos of our adventures.