Namibia in 30 days

Namibia is an African country west of Botswana and South Africa. We first planned this trip back in 2017 but found that most of the campsites were booked out so had to cancel the camper we had paid a deposit on. So this time we started booking the campsites a year out before we booked the camper. 

Our first sunrise out camping

Normally I would work out an itinerary, sometimes rough, sometimes detailed but I decided to leave this one to Lindsay. It was his idea and I knew nothing about the country until he showed me some photos. We would be able to combine both landscape and wildlife photography, which would keep us both happy.

Bitumen road - a rare sight

The original itinerary was 45 days but I suggested that this might be too long so we cut it down to 36 days door to door. I worked out the distances and times between stops which worried me as most of the roads are gravel, but he didn’t want to change anything.



He researched 4WD campers and chose Bushlore. They had a good reputation. The vehicles are well set up and after seeing what everyone else that had hired, we had the best set up. You don’t want to be spending all your time packing your rooftop camper away or diving through boxes in the back of a ute to find a saucepan or whatever. It had a solar panel so we never had to plug into power, even though nearly every camp site had power we didn’t have an extension lead. If I had known that I would have taken a hairdryer! We didn’t need a Landcruiser, so went for the Hilux but the camper had a lift up roof instead of a tent. Compared to our Landrover Discovery it was a little bit gutless but did the job.



South African Airways does a code share with Virgin – Virgin does the Melbourne Perth leg, and while the Boeing planes were better and definitely more comfortable, the food was awful. The South African Airbus planes were a little older, the seats were uncomfortable for me but the food was great. Total trip time was nearly 26 hours – 4:15hrs, 11:30hrs and 1:55hrs flying time, less coming home because of the tail wind.

I booked two days in the capital Windhoek to get over jet lag and do some shopping. On our first night we walked to a restaurant not that far from our guesthouse as we didn’t have our camper yet. The next morning at breakfast a South African explained that we wouldn’t want to do that in South Africa and probably shouldn’t do it here either. The theory is that if you have enough money to pay for dinner, the thieves will take it off you before you have time to spend it. You were going to give it away anyway weren't you, so why not to them?

a good gravel road - I wish they had all been like this

The following day we picked up our camper – it takes a couple of hours to go through all the paperwork and explain everything about the 4WD and camper which sits on the back tray. Lindsay had researched supermarkets as food is very important to him as he was worried what we might not be able to buy. We brought some stuff from home just in case which was a good idea. It turned out to be the best supermarket in the city, they had the best range we ever saw in the whole country and were able to get them to cryovac some steaks and chicken.



Lindsay had been corresponding with an Australian expat for a couple of years and we were invited to their place for dinner. We were able to reciprocate by bringing some things from Australia that they can’t get there, including a huge tub of Vegemite. 

Our Namibian Itinerary:

The Kgalagadi Tranfrontier National Park – wildlife

Keetmanshoop - Quiver Trees

Fish river canyon – which we cancelled

Luderitz – to see the ghost town Kolmanskop

Sossusvlei – the sand dunes

Walvis Bay – flamingos and a scenic flight from Swakopumnd

Cape Cross – fur seals, which we cancelled

Epupa Falls – the falls and Himba people

Etosha National Park – wildlife

Most stops were two days, with three days in each camp in Etosha and Epupa Falls. When you are driving yourself, you just can't stop, sight see and drive again.

Lowering the tyre pressures - too much and you will strip the tyre off, too high and you will puncture it

We drove 6,927 kms on mostly gravel roads. Nambia only has two main bitumen roads, one that goes north/south and another that goes east/west. There are a couple of other ones but not many. Most of them were good, but a couple were just awful. The trouble is that you don’t know when they were last graded when working out your distances.