Desert and Dune Explorer

Depending on your flight's arrival time, you can either stay one night in Windhoek or drive the three hours on mostly paved roads to the Kalahari or Namib Naukluft.

When you're there: The lodges offer scenic drives, game viewing activities and nature trails. The sunsets are spectacular and a good excuse for a gin and tonic.

Accommodation options: Windhoek Accommodation or Kalahari Accommodation

After breakfast, travel west to the Naukluft Mountains to hike the Wasserberg Trail.

On the way: The moderate three-hour hike takes you through the Naukluft Mountains with fresh water rock pools and beautiful riverine trees. From here, drive on to the next lodge for 2 nights. A late afternoon nature drive or walk at the lodge is recommended, especially at sunset!

When you're there: Enter Sossusvlei at sunrise and remember to take plenty of film or memory, sun cream, a hat, walking shoes and water. Explore the world's highest dunes and a sheltered pan with petrified trees that are hundreds of years old; climb the dunes and look out over a sea of sand. Private reserves in the area reveal fascinating flora, fauna and ancient desert landscapes.

Accommodation options: Sossusvlei Accommodation

A five-hour drive north takes you through the gradual change from mountains and dunes to rolling grass-covered hills with scattered acacia trees. Swakopmund is a quaint resort town by the sea with an obvious German heritage at odds with its bleak surrounds.

On the way: Look out for the endemic Hartmann's mountain zebra as you leave; stop at Solitaire, about 80km from Sesriem for some home-made bread and an ice cold drink; Kuiseb Canyon has some shady picnic spots; you can see springbok and pure-bred wild ostrich across the vast gravel plains of the Namib; the lunar landscape; look out for the welwitschia plant.

When you're there: Visit the Walvis Bay Lagoon - a RAMSAR wetlands site - where thousands of flamingoes, pelicans and numerous waders feed in the nutrient-rich shallows; restaurants, shops and attractions in Swakopmund; spend an extra day making the most of the cool air.

Among the many organised activities, we recommend a scenic flight over Skeleton Coast; a comfortable and informative boat cruise of Walvis Bay where you meet dolphins, sea lions, pelicans and terns; and quad biking, which is an exciting way to experience the sand dunes.

Accommodation options: Swakopmund Accommodation

From Swakopmund you have the choice of going to the Skeleton Coast or inland to the Erongo Mountains of Damaraland by way of Cape Cross.

On the way: Drive along the Skeleton Coast to Cape Cross - the largest breeding cape fur seal colony in the world. The stench of 100,000 seals can be a tad over-powering: take a handkerchief to cover your nose. Lunch at Cape Cross Lodge or picnic at some suitable serene and other-worldly spot. Stop at the lichen fields and a salt pan that is an excellent birding spot.

When you're there: Explore the Skeleton Coast and its mysterious interior; visit the seal colony at Cape Cross; game drives up the riverbeds; scenic drives; fishing. Ai Aiba is inland with excellent hikes and rock paintings in the granite outcrops.

Accommodation options: Skeleton Coast Accommodation / Damaraland Accommodation

Wherever you stay, you have a pleasant few hours' drive to Okahandja - the final approach before landing in reality.

On the way: Spitzkoppe is a miniature Matterhorn; Omaruru is a quirky artists' town with galleries, craft markets and coffee shops

When you're there: The lodges offer game drives and nature trails; watersports on the Von Bach Dam; Okahandja has a good wood carvers' market

Accommodation options: Okapuka Ranch or Okahandja Lodge

Windhoek is about an hour's drive and the airport a further half hour. Stop for lunch in the city or continue on to the airport in time for your flight and the end of a fabulous desert expedition.