Day 1.- WINDHOEK
Upon arrival at Windhoek international Airport, we will head right to the hotel and check in. After a short rest and welcome note, we’ll start our tour at the very spot of our accommodation: the Etango Game Ranch. As it is situated inside of the Namatanga Wildlife Preserve, it boasts a wide variety of both flora and fauna. Etango offers a dynamic photo environment with a lot of life and motion to capture on film. The preserve has vast tracts of land that contain many ecosystems, from mountain to the sands of the Kalahari, and the central plains, which creates an area of great biodiversity without equal.
Overnight at the hotel.
Day 2-3.- ETOSHA NATIONAL PARK
Get your camera ready, because today we will offer the pleasure of a full day on Safari in Etosha, with a guide and a private vehicle. This national Park is the biggest and best wild life sanctuary in all of Namibia. The next two days are dedicated to get relaxed during our several game drives and to enjoy the sounds and soul of mother nature. During our safari, we will go through many different geographical and ecological zones of the vast expanse that comprises Etosha.
We can see herds of rhinos and elephants, even giraffes and lions, all in their natural habitats, and we have a very good chance of seeing them all, too; Etosha has around 300 lions, 3000 giraffes, 2000 elephants, and a huge quantity of springbok, zebra, gnu, buffalo, kudu, oryx, and if we are really lucky, we might spot an elusive leopard or two. It is worth noting that Etosha is also the home of several species that are on the verge of extinction, including both black and white rhinos, the black faced Impala, the Tssessebe, and the Oryx.
Also, in the center of Etosha, we can visit the famous Pan, an ancient and now dried up lake that covers about 5000 square kilometers. It will be, without a doubt, a day of unforgettable experiences and rare and wonderful photo opportunities for those who are lovers of nature and wildlife.
Day 4.- DAMARALAND & BRANDBERG MOUNTAINS
We will leave Etosha in the morning and start with our Namib road-trip. Whilst driving we will realise a notable landmark suddenly jutting out the surrounding semi dessert of the Namib. The Brandberg or 'fire mountain', a soaring mass of granite, is so called because of the effect created by the setting sun. On its western face, which causes the granite massif to resemble a burning slag-heap glowing red. The highest peak of the Brandberg is called 'Königstein' and is Namibia's highest peak at 2,573m. The Brandberg is a perfect place for introducing and practising our shooting of time-lapses and capturing some extremely awesome sunset shots with red glowing mountains in front of a dramatic sky.
Day 5.- SPITZKOPP
The Spitzkoppe is one of the most magical places in Namibia where you can experience absolutely fantastic starry nights. The highlight is the 'rock bridge' forming an arch which is absolutely beautiful for sunset and also for fantastic night shots with the impressive milky way of the southern hemisphere in your frame. We will experience a night of new moon at Spitzkoppe for stunning night shots and for perfect star trails. In case these are new fields of photography, don't worry, you will be guided through setup and settings whenever you need assistance.
Day 6.- SWAKOPMUND
The After our three days spend in the very dry and hot Namib semi desert we will enjoy some refreshing coastal climate at Walvis Bay & Swakopmund. Everyone who wants to relax a bit from photography will be offered a myriad of fun and adrenaline activities in the white sand dunes. But we will also use our time to have some nice sunset shots at the beach or at the grotesque 'Moon Landscape’.
Day 7.- SHIP WRECK DESERT EXPEDITION
The famous ship wreck of the Eduard Bohlen was wrecked on the Skeleton Coast on the 5. September 1909 in a thick fog and lies currently in the sand dunes 400 meters from the shoreline. The wreck is only accessible by helicopter or by 4x4 vehicles with an expensive and not to easy obtain special permission as access to the Namib Naukluft National Park is highly restricted in most of its areas.
We will leave Swakopmund early and will first stop at the beautiful Sandwich Harbour which is part of the Namib Naukluft Park. The lagoon, salt pans and the bird sanctuary, which form the Walvis Bay Wetlands, are rightly heralded as the single most important coastal wetlands of Southern Africa and habitat to thousands of birds. Giant sand dunes run straight into the ocean, creating breathtaking sceneries and unique landscapes.
In the afternoon we will arrive at the ship wreck and will setup our camp for the next night. We will sleep in tents deep in the desert, hundreds of kilometres away from human civilisation.
We will prepare for our sunset shots at the wreck and also for night sky shots, that will be amazing and only a few photographers might have.
Day 8.- PELICAN POINT & WALVIS BAY
After we have taken some sunrise photographs at the ship wreck and had breakfast we will head back to Swakopmund. On our way we will make a detour to the Pelican Point lighthouse and will arrive in our hotel in the afternoon. Now it's time to clean and check our equipment before we start to our next iconic stop the Sossus Dunes in the next morning.
Day 9,10.- SOSSUSVLEIEI
Sossusvlei and Deadvlei are definitively one of the highlights of our trip and offering us endless opportunities for amazing photographs everyone of us will be proud of for ever ;) We will definitively have fantastic sunrise and sunset shots at Deadvlei and Sossusvlei, we will climb dunes and have a lot of joy. As little titbit we will arrange permits* for night shots at Deadvlei to enjoy this amazing sky with some dead of these famous trees.
* Subject to availability. We will try our best to get this unique experience arranged for you.
Day 11,12 .- KOLMANSKOP
Maybe you have already seen some pictures of the grotesque ghost town near Luederitz: Kolmanskop is known for its abandoned houses which get sucked in by the Namibs' sand dunes. The rooms partly filled with sand and the roofs already collapsed, this place offers hundreds of interesting shots, which are all absolutely unique. We will spend one whole day here as it needs so much time to explore all the rooms and we will have to shot one by one most of these spots.
Kolmanskop is a well of haunting and beautiful opportunities to work on capturing ambiance with your camera. A deserted mining town, Kolmanskop was once a German settlement, but was abandoned to the will of the desert in the early 1950’s. Now it is a photogenic blend of colorful walls and sand swept buildings, some which have whole dunes inside their rooms, as the desert devours it little by little. The town is also rather large enough for us to spread out and create a fantastic photographic story, as there are more than enough subjects to work with.
Day 13.- DESERT HORSES
Now with hundreds more photographs in our bag we will leave Luederitz and Kolmanskop and try to find some wild horses of the Namib on our way to Aus. The afternoon we will relax at the pool area and review our pictures and to reflect our experiences during our amazing trip.
Day 14.- WINDHOEK
Drive back to Windhoek . International departures.