Exploring Deserts and Wetlands on a Luxury Namibia Safari

Get a bird’s-eye view across the staggering scenery of Sossusvlei on a hot air balloon ride. Launching in time for sunrise, you’ll billow over the desert and see the area’s famous star dunes, bleached clay pans and surrounding mountains washed with pale golden light.

Sossusvlei’s desert landscapes seem to roll on endlessly. Cover more ground on an e-bike tour, with a battery-powered assist function giving a boost when tackling the rugged, barren terrain. Pedal past dunes and through gravel plains with tufts of shrubbery.

NamibRand Nature Reserve, bordering Sossusvlei, is Africa’s first International Dark Sky Reserve, with little to no impact from artificial light. From an observatory, be guided through views of the Southern Cross, Magellanic Clouds and the core of the Milky Way.

This region is home to Africa’s largest free-roaming population of desert-adapted black rhinos, protected by community conservation efforts. Desert Rhino Camp works with Save the Rhino Trust to help local people work as wildlife guardians. Learn about their work and head out on black rhino tracking walks to look for the animals in their natural habitat.

Damaraland and nearby Kaokoland are among the few places with desert-adapted elephants. These rare mammals have splayed feet for walking on deep sand and can survive without water for several days. Head out on drives with expert guides for the best chance to observe them, especially in the drier months from May to October, when they graze by ancient riverbeds.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Twyfelfontein has one of the largest and oldest collections of San engravings. Learn more on this immersive tour, seeing rock paintings and artwork chiselled in sandstone slabs. Other fascinating geological sites you’ll visit include the basalt columns known as Organ Pipes and Burnt Mountain – a hill formed of solidified lava.

Spanning the Zambezi Region’s border with Botswana, the Linyanti wetlands is among the best places to spot some of the area’s over 430 species of birds. Head out with specialist guides to seek out wattled cranes, African pygmy geese and elusive Pel’s fishing owls, which thrive in the dense riverine forests that line the Linyanti River.

This remote corner of Namibia encompasses the protected Nkasa Rupara National Park and the Sobbe Wildlife Corridor, which help elephants to move freely between Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Angola. Take game drives and night safaris in search of migrating elephants, along with lions, leopards and mega-herds of buffalos.

Board a cruise boat or ride in a mokoro – a traditional dugout canoe – for a Namibia wetlands safari along the Kwando River and its narrow water channels. Your expert guides will steer the boats around papyrus islands and down waterways lined with reeds and forest, pointing out sightings of hippos, crocodiles and birds.