Namibia's Wild North Self-Drive Safari

Windhoek to Sossusvlei, 350 km, five to six hours. Pick up anything you need in town, then head south and west over the Spreetshoogte or Remhoogte Pass, where the central highlands drop away to the desert plains below.

You are entering the oldest desert on earth, where star dunes rise three hundred metres and rank among the largest anywhere. Two nights here, so the whole of tomorrow belongs to the dunes. Lunches are at your own arrangement.

Up early for breakfast and on to the Sesriem Gate for a full day in the dunes: Sossusvlei itself, Deadvlei with its nine-hundred-year-old camelthorn skeletons standing on cracked white clay, Dune 45, Big Daddy, Elim Dune and the Sesriem Canyon.

Come back for lunch, or take a packed lunch into the dunes and return in the late afternoon for a rest. A guided Sossusvlei excursion, a hot air balloon flight over the sand sea and nature drives can all be arranged. Lunches are at your own arrangement.

Sossusvlei to Swakopmund, 350 km, five to six hours. North to Solitaire, then west across the Tropic of Capricorn and through the Gaub and Kuiseb canyons onto the Namib gravel plains.

Run in via Walvis Bay, or take the recommended detour via Ganab to the Welwitschia Plains, where individual plants have been growing for well over a thousand years, and the Moon Landscape. Swakopmund is a genuine oddity: German colonial architecture, cake shops and the adventure capital of Namibia, all on the edge of a cold Atlantic.

A full day on the coast. The shoreline is known as the Skeleton Coast for its barren reaches, its shipwrecks and, in earlier days, the whale bones that littered the beaches.

The outstanding excursion is Sandwich Harbour, where the dunes run straight into the Atlantic and which is reachable only by guided 4x4 on the tide. Other options include a dolphin and seal cruise, sea kayaking, dune quad biking and sandboarding. Lunches and dinners are at your own arrangement, in cafes and restaurants overlooking the sea.

Swakopmund to Damaraland, 445 km, seven to eight hours. North via Henties Bay to the Cape Cross seal colony, stopping at the lichen fields and the shipwreck between Wlotzkasbaken and Henties Bay, then inland across open plains through Uis to Twyfelfontein.

Twyfelfontein holds more than two thousand rock engravings and was Namibia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Organ Pipes and Burnt Mountain are close by, and the Damara Living Museum is worth an hour. Lunches are at your own arrangement.

Twyfelfontein to Palmwag, 110 km, an hour and a half to two hours. Spend the morning on the Twyfelfontein highlights you missed or on a nature drive, then head north through open plains and mountain ranges to the veterinary fence close to Palmwag Lodge.

Palmwag sits at the edge of a 582,000-hectare concession, one of the largest conservation areas in the country and home to desert-adapted elephant and black rhino. Two nights here.

A full day in the concession, on a guided hike or a nature drive with the lodge. The landscape is stony, red and open, with springs and dry riverbeds that concentrate the wildlife.

Desert-adapted elephant range enormous distances here and are never guaranteed, but the guides know where they were last seen, and the same country holds giraffe, Hartmann's mountain zebra, oryx and springbok.

Palmwag to Opuwo, 235 km, three to four hours. North across the Hoanib River and up over Joubert Pass to Opuwo, the centre of Kaokoland, where Himba, Herero, Damara and Owambo people live side by side.

Depending on your arrival time, visit a Himba village in the afternoon with a local guide, which the hotel can arrange. Go with a guide rather than alone, and ask before you photograph anyone. Lunches are at your own arrangement.

A morning Himba village visit is best, when there is the most activity. Then Opuwo to western Etosha, 200 km, three to four hours, heading east and then south.

Tonight is at Hobatere, on a private concession just outside the park's western boundary. You arrive in the early afternoon with time for an afternoon or evening game drive if you want one.

A full morning's game drive east through the park to Okaukuejo, then out through Andersson Gate on the southern boundary. Pay your entry fee on the way in and buy a waterhole map at the camp shop, which is the single most useful thing you can carry in Etosha.

Etosha holds 114 mammal species and 340 bird species around a salt pan visible from space. Tonight is at Etosha Village, just outside the gate, with the afternoon free to go back into the park or join a guided drive.

A full day for game viewing, either driving all day or splitting it into morning and afternoon drives with a rest between. The waterholes on the southern side reward patience more than distance.

In the dry months about forty springs along the southern edge of the pan concentrate the wildlife in a way few parks anywhere can match. A guided drive in an open vehicle can be arranged.

A full day's game drive from the southern side of Etosha to the eastern boundary, taking it slowly and stopping at waterholes along the way. A packed lunch can be arranged at extra cost and eaten overlooking one of them.

The eastern side is flat endless plain and tree savannah, a different landscape again. Tonight and tomorrow are at Mushara, a bush camp on Etosha's eastern edge.

A full day for game viewing, either driving all day or splitting it into morning and afternoon drives. These are self-drive game drives, though you can arrange to go out in the lodge's open vehicle with a guide.

Come back to camp in the middle of the day rather than pushing on. The eastern waterholes are at their busiest in the early morning and the last hour before the gates close.

Etosha East to Otjiwa, 330 km, four to five hours. South via Otavi and Otjiwarongo to Otjiwa, the oldest private game farm in Namibia.

Otjiwa carries around 25 game species including white rhino, sable and roan. Sundowner drives, game walks, rhino tracking on foot and night drives can all be arranged on arrival. Lunches are at your own arrangement.

An early rise for the optional morning activity, then a full breakfast before departure. Otjiwa to Windhoek is 225 km on tarred roads, three to four hours.

Return the vehicle in Windhoek, where the rental is closed out, and transfer to Hosea Kutako International Airport. Allow generously: the airport is a forty-five minute to one hour drive from the city and check-in closes two hours before departure.