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 About Our Day Tours
Our day tours leave between 8h30 and 8.45 am and
return around 4/4.30pm.
You will be collected from your hotel and dropped
off there after your tour. All tours include
a hearty, home-made picnic lunch, drinks, National
Park permits and taxes. Our picnics are a must! Fresh bread and home made pâtés,
lasagnes, salads, fruit, cakes and coffee ... all enjoyed in the middle of nowhere with
spectacular views into the bargain!
During the day we stop frequently to
get out and explore. We
attempt to provide an under-standing of the environments we visit,
engaging the principles of interactive, interpretive guiding.
Each tour involves some walking, but we take care not to overtire
our guests. Similarly, while our tours usually
includes some fairly adventurous driving in off-road and desert conditions,
safety is our prime concern.
Our guides are highly experienced in this type of driving and observe strict guidelines for
the protection of our guests and the conservation
of the environment.
Sandwich
Harbour
The
Turnstone Tour to Sandwich Harbour begins when you are collected
from your hotel at about 8.30 am. You drive along a beautiful dune
chain adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, zigzagging the
original railway
line between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. This is an opportunity for
a detailed look at the formation of 'the world's oldest desert'
- its origins, composition and movements and erosions.
 Your
first stop is at ' Bird Rock ', a guano island inhabited by about 200
000 birds and one of the earliest examples of efforts to
commercialize
the coast's rich natural resources. The Lagoons at Walvis Bay and at Sandwich Harbour have been is designated
as 'Wetlands of International Importance' (or 'Ramsar sites'), while the 'Bird Paradise'
at Walvis Bay is a key nesting and feeding site for thousands
of visiting and resident birds. Frequent surveys, overseen by
expert ornithologists from Namibia and South Africa, regularly record
numbers of Flamingo, Plover and Tern between Walvis Bay Lagoon and
Sandwich Harbour. Other favourites, such as Pelican,
Avocet, Turnstone and a huge variety of waders can be seen, with
numbers peaking at around 170 000 in November. Several endemic species,
such as the Dune Lark and the Damara Tern, are also in the vicinity.
 Leaving Walvis Bay behind, you head for the lower reaches of the
Kuiseb Delta. This unique ecosystem is dotted with archeological
sites, 450 year-old animal tracks, wind blown graves and magnificent
dunes. There is evidence of ancient and recent gathering, harvesting
and trading by the Topnaar, an indigenous Namibian community descended
from the !Khoi group, which relies on the naturally occurring !Nara
fruit for its marginal existence.
 Turning
south, you begin the approach to Sandwich Harbour itself. This crosses
barren salt pans and vegetation-covered hummock dunes that shelter
small groups of oryx, Springbok, Ostrich, Jackal and the occasional Brown Hyena. Peregrine
Falcons, Pale Chanting Goshawks and Black-breasted Snake Eagles
can sometimes be seen hunting small mammals (such as gerbils and three-striped-mice)
that share the dunes with a fascinating variety
of desert-adapted insects, reptiles and plants.
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Photo courtesy: Alec Connah |
This
section of the journey is as dramatic as the landscape, and it soon
becomes clear why Sandwich Harbour is often described as inaccessible!
Spring tides and shifting sands ensure an unpredictable route, but
as you approach the towering, wind-sculptured dunes at the edge
of Sandwich Harbour, there is a sense of entering a different world.
All that is left of the old whaling station and its community of
traders and fishermen, is the freshwater lagoon, a solitary deserted
building and the strange greenery of this unique coastal wetland.
This is the setting for your picnic - a large hamper full of homemade
cakes, savouries, salads, fruit and drinks - followed by a walk along
the Lagoon (an official marine reserve) or a scramble up the towering
dunes. If you're keen on birds, the Lagoon and its surrounds are something
of a wonderland. Over 40 000 birds - 34 different species - have
been recorded in this area. And for wave-watchers, it's usual to see seals
and dolphins here, while sightings of whales are also an occasional treat.
The
drive back home affords a last look at these haunting landscapes
and a chance for reflection ... you will arrive back at your hotel
round about 4/4.30pm.
Please note: in the interests of safety, we reserve the right to modify this tour should our guide deem weather or driving conditions dangerous.
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'The Sheltering
Desert'
Exploring
the Swakop and Khan RiverValley
- a unique tour of the Namib Desert -
 Departing
Swakopmund at approximately 8.30am, this tour takes you
inland into a unique ecosytem of gravel plains, sweeping dunes
and river valleys. The first part of the tour focuses on a variety
of classic dune formations with magnificent views, providing
perfect opportunities to photograph the scope, shapes and colours
of the Namib. It is also affords a fascinating insight into
a world of reptiles, birds and insects living among the sand
dunes. We'll probably see gekos, lizards and harmless snakes - all uniquely
adapted to surviving in the burning sands of the desert. It is also a good platform from which to take
a brief historical perspective of the area and get an insight
into the key role played by the Swakopmund and Walvis Bay in the development of
modern-day Namibia.
 We
venture deeper into the desert and the massive Namib-Naukluft
National Park via the Swakop River valley and the Moon Landscape,
formed over 460 million years. Botanically, this is like landing
on another planet: 1 500 year-old Welwitschias, lithops, hoodias
and mist-gathering lichens are unforgettably surreal. So - in
quite a different way - is the historically-loaded oasis of Goanikontes.
Once an important stop over for travellers heading inland from
the coast, the palms and blue gum trees which still haunt this
19th century Schutztruppe garrison, symbolise man's doomed efforts
to re-order the desert.
 As
we head into the lower reaches of the Khan River Valley, there is
a chance to see Oryx, Springbok, Kudu, Klipsringer, Steinbock, Ostrich
and Jackal set against the harsh rocky landscapes of the pro-Namib.
Geologically, this area is of huge significance: from countless
small-scale mineworks of hand-hewn tourmaline and rose quartz, to
the largest open-cast uranium mine in the world. Their mineral treasures
apart, these geological formations are stunningly beautiful: marble,
mica, spider-web dolorite and granite cliffs provide interesting
short walks and climbs to explore the area. On the way back to Swakopmund,
we see yet another side of the Swakop River: an established community
of small holdings lining the riverbed. These range from asparagus
production, date plantations and olive groves, to small stock husbandry,
riding stables and a 'camel farm'. As with all our day excursions,
this tours returns to Swakopmund around 4/4.30pm. Our delicious picnic
lunches, taken in splendid scenery, are not to be missed - nor is
the exciting 4x4 dune-driving necessary to reach the best panaramas!
Please note that while there will be
much to marvel at in the course of this tour, we do not 'guarantee' a
'little 5' tick-list. We feel that the 'sheltering desert' should be just
that: a place of sancuary and nurture for its wildlife, which deserves its peace
and privacy
as much as we do. What we find along the way we will be happy to show, but
we will not routinely dig out, handle or disturb these small, often
fragle, creatures as an added attraction.
A day at Cape
Cross and the Messum Crater
This is a journey northwards
hugging the
shoreline to the famous Skeleton Coast. You'll see lichen fields on
the gravel plains, flamingos and pelicans on the salt pans, the
bizarre seaside settlement of Wlotzkasbaken and Namibia's most
northerly coastal town of Henties Bay. A little way beyond this is the
seal colony at Cape Cross - the largest in the southern hemisphere and
home to about 200 000 seals in the peak breeding season. Not far from
the seal colony is the site of the first European landing on the
Namibian coast in 1494 by the Spanish explorer Diego Cao. Once marked
by the cross he erected there, Cao’s ambitious landing is now
commemorated by a replica monument on the edge of the wild and
treacherous Skeleton Coast.
 Your
journey now heads inland towards Damaraland and the approach to the
Brandberg, Namibia’s highest mountain which can be seen in the far
distance. The scenery is dramatically different, and in this rugged
semi-desert, in the foothills of the Messum Crater, you’ll stop for
lunch: a huge picnic hamper full of delicious home-made food, enjoyed
in the impressive scenery of the pro-Namib’s seemingly endless gravel
planes. Straddling the border with Damaraland, the road to the Messum
crosses over into a region of higher rainfall which in past times was
used as marginal grazing ground for small stock, by Damaraland’s
pastoral nomads.
The Messum itself is a massive 130
million-year-old volcanic crater of huge geological significance,
whose history and development can be traced in the cracked, squashed
and shattered patterns of granitic intrusions and inselbergs. All
wonderfully photogenic! Old shelters in the Crater and examples of
rock art - dating back up to 5 000 years - can be seen. An added bonus
is that this area also boasts some of Namibia’s finest and
least-visited specimens of the Welwitschia Mirabilis.
This miraculous plant - massive, ancient, surviving against all odds -
is considered one of the world’s botanical marvels.
Finally,
apart from playing host to such astonishing examples of the country’s
national flower, this landscape is home to a surprising range of
animals: springbok, ostrich, brown hyena and jackal are found here,
and it’s not unusual to see cheetah out scanning the plains for game.
But there are smaller species too, like meercat, ground squirrels and
gerbils; while endemic and near endemic birds, such as the Gray’s Lark
and the Long-Billed Lark, can be spotted flitting among the rocks.
The tour leaves Swakopmund at 8am and returns in the early evening. It
costs for N$ 1750 per person, which includes a large picnic lunch,
drinks, national park permits and VAT. Our minimum booking for this
tour is four passengers.
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