Namibia budget safari allows you to explore some of Namibia’s highlights. On this African safari to Namibia you will enjoy a safari to Etosha National park. Make a visit to a Himba village and see the ancient rock art at Twyfelfontein. You will climb the magnificent dunes of Sossusvlei in the Namib Desert.

The 10 day Budget Namibia safari takes you to Etosha and the Namib desert. On this African safari in Namibia, you will tour Etosha National Park and dunes at Sossusvlei. The Namibia budget safari is designed to offer ‘wildlife and landscape snapshots’ in Namibia.

Just imagine visiting a premier wildlife location. Combine this with a tour to the world’s oldest desert. Etosha National Park measures over 22,000km². This is home to 114 species of mammals and 340 species of bird life. It is Namibia’s largest and most impressive game park.

The name Etosha has had various interpretations. The most famous is ‘Lake of Mother’s Tears’. This illustrate limitless grief of a Hei//om mother upon her infant death.

On this Namibia budget safari, you will tour Sossusvlei in the Namib Desert. You will be here for the massive sand dunes.  This includes unforgettable desert landscapes and the option to  explore the dune fields.

The Namibia budget tour is an affordable African camping safari in Namibia. You will be in assisted comfortable camping. Your participation is limited to only helping with the tents.

Namibia Budget Safari Destination

Okonjima Nature Reserve

Okonjima started off as a guest farm about 25 years ago. This was around the same time that the AfriCat Foundation was set up here. The foundation was to help conserve some of Namibia’s threatened carnivores.

Since then, Okonjima’s offering to guests has broadened into several camps. All within a landscape of rolling hills and grassy plains now known as the Okonjima Nature Reserve.

A stay in one of the camps within this 220km² reserve usually focuses mostly on Namibia’s big cats. Your Namibia budget safari has excellent opportunities to learn about them, and to view them at close quarters.

Those on Namibia budget safari may see leopard, brown hyaena and pangolin sightings while on Namibia safari here.

The history of Okonjima goes back to the 1890’s and colonial South West Africa. Okonjima was used by the German military.

Due to its relative high altitude, in the area, it was apparently free of the African Horse Sickness. It was therefore a good place to rest their horses.

From the early 1920s Okonjima was used as a cattle farm. In 1970 Val and Rose Hanssen bought the farm, to breed and farm Brahman and Jersey cattle. Throughout the time that cattle were kept on the farm, loses of stock to predators, particularly leopards, caused a strain on the finances.

Okonjima’s relationship with Namibia’s big cats did not start too favourably, as livestock losses to predators resulted in them being actively persecuted. However, herein developed an interest to further understand the habits and behaviour of Namibia’s big cats, particularly leopards.

The tourism element to Okonjima had humble beginnings. It started in 1986 as an overnight stop for travellers between Etosha and Windhoek.

From here it grew, they began to offer bird watching experiences. There were trails demonstrating skills of the Bushman and baited leopard viewing.

They also raised a cheetah cub called Chinga, discovered in a cage at an auction. It would appear on the lawn at afternoon tea, and allow visitors to stroke it.

The farm was very well run by the Hanssen family, and gradually word of Okonjima’s carnivores, and their work with them, began to spread. By 1992 Okonjima was a ‘highlight’ on any visitor’s trip around Namibia.

In 1993 Val and Rose’s three children; Wayne, Donna and Rosalea Hanssen purchased the farm from their parents. Initially the reserve became home to cheetah and leopard rescued from conflict with livestock farmers.

It continued to grow with further accommodation built to accommodate the increase in visitors.

Etosha National Park

The Namibia budget safari then proceeds to Etosha National Park. This national park is located in northwestern Namibia.

It was proclaimed a game reserve in March 1907 in Ordinance 88. This was by the Governor of German South West Africa, Dr. Friedrich von Lindequist.

Etosha National Park is unique in Africa. The park’s main characteristic is a salt pan so large it can be seen from space. Yet there is abundant wildlife that congregates around the waterholes, giving you almost guaranteed game sightings.

At the same time Etosha National Park is one of the most accessible game reserves in Namibia and Southern Africa.

Etosha National Park is the gateway to Northern Namibia and Ovamboland. It’s a very popular stop on any Namibian tour hence its inclusion in the Namibia budget safari. Above all, it is known as Namibia’s foremost wildlife sancuary.

The landscape is unique and varied and subsequently home to a wide variety of animals. On your Namibia budget safari here you may see lion, elephant, leopard, giraffe, cheetah and hyena. Others include springbok, two kinds of zebra, eland and many more species of wildlife are found here.

Etosha Pan

Your Namibia budget safari will not miss the massive Etosha pan. It is the most distinctive feature of the park and can even be seen from space.

It is believed that it was formed over 100 million years ago and is 130 km’s long and up to 50 km’s wide in certain places. This means that the pan covers almost a quarter of the entire park!

Waterholes

Waterholes are usually a redeeming feature in any major national park and Etosha is no different. They are a great place to silently observe game and see them in their natural environment. This is away from noisy mechanical beasts that we often view wildlife from.

Each waterhole in Etosha is different and animals spotted at each vary from season to season. The main waterholes in Etosha include Okaukuejo, Okondeka, Halali and Goas and Sueda and Salvadora.

Damaraland

Your Namibia budget safari then heads to the north-central part of what later became Namibia, inhabited by the Damaras. It was bounded roughly by Ovamboland in the north, the Namib Desert in the west, the Kalahari Desert in the east, and Windhoek in the south.

This will be a great stop on your Namibia budget safari. Damaraland lies in between the dunes of Sossusvlei and the wildlife sanctuary that is Etosha National Park.

It is a lesser-known treasure – the wild, untamed landscapes of northwestern Damaraland. This semi-desert region is one of the country’s most spectacular, with vast, arid plains intersected by sudden towering outcrops of rust-colored granite.

The first taste of Damaraland’s alien rock formations comes as the flat, arid scrubland. This is on either side of the road gives way without warning to the jaw-dropping granite peaks of Spitzkoppe.

They are often referred to as the “Matterhorn of Namibia”, Spitzkoppe is more than 120 million years old. The tallest of its many outcrops stands 5,853 feet/1,784 meters high against the blue sky.

To be discovered on your Namibia budget safari are an assortment of desert-adapted wildlife. They include elephant, rhino, zebra and lion, which eke out an existence in this near-barren landscape.

A not-to-be-missed attraction is the picturesque Brandberg, Namibia’s highest mountain, which is home to thousands of ancient rock paintings – most notably the White Lady.

The rocky outcrops of Twyfelfontein feature exceptional Bushmen engravings. They are considered to be some of the best-preserved etchings on the continent.

Your Namibia budget safari may visit the Petrified Forest. It dates back millions of years and offers a haunting landscape of gigantic fossilised trees.

Swakopmund

This Namibia budget safari will take you to the coastal city in Namibia. Swakopmund is located west of the capital, Windhoek. Its sandy beaches face the Atlantic Ocean.

Established by German colonists in 1892, the city’s colonial landmarks include the Swakopmund Lighthouse and the Mole. There is an old sea wall. Next to the lighthouse, the Swakopmund Museum documents Namibian history.

Inland, there is the elegant Swakopmund Railway Station, now a hotel, also dates to the colonial era.

Swakopmund is the capital of the Erongo Region and has about 34,000 inhabitants. Swakopmund is known as activity centre of Namibia. Nowhere else in the country will your Namibia budget safari find such a variety of possible activities.

The town’s history starts with the landing of the Portuguese sailor Bartholomew Diaz on Namibian soil at Cape Cross in the year 1487 where he erected a stone cross.

Much later, in 1793, two Dutch sailors were anchoring shortly at the mouth of the Swakop River. In 1862 the crew of a German gunboat hoisted the German flag at the mouth of the Swakop River to signal the territories occupancy.

Another gunboat marked the possible landing site with poles in August 1892. With this sovereign act the occupation of this coastal area by the German Reich was demonstrated to the English who were occupying the harbour of Walvis Bay.

Geographically Swakopmund is situated amidst dunes and desert close to the mouth of the Swakop River. During the colonial period Swakopmund was an important harbour, although the conditions were not really favourable.

The coastal waters were far too shallow, a sheltered lagoon was missing and the surf was much too strong. Additionally the harbour of Luederitz was too far away and the nearby Walvis Bay harbour was under British occupation.

The disembarkation of settlers and troops on surf boats was a life threatening undertaking. An artificial harbour was built at very high costs. From 1894 regular freight traffic started led by a shipping company in Hamburg.

Initially a 325 meter long, wooden jetty was built in 1902, which was replaced by an iron one in 1912. The complete supply of the colony was handled via Swakopmund. The remains of this Jetty can still be seen today and in 2010 an oyster bar even opened on the so called “Jetty”.

Sossusvlei

Sossusvlei is possibly Namibia’s most spectacular and best-known attraction. It is characterised by the large red dunes that surround it. Sossusvlei is a large, white, salt and clay pan and is a great destination all year round.

The Namibia budget safari will be visiting some of the highest dunes in the world, reaching almost 400 meters. They  provide photographic enthusiasts with wonderful images in the beautiful morning and evening light.

“Vlei” in Afrikaans means a shallow depression filled with water. Sossusvlei is a mud pan created by a river that flows through the Namib every 5 to 10 years.

Sossusvlei is very popular amongst landscape photographers, and it is not hard to see why. The severe color palate, the undulating dunes, the unobstructed views and the otherworldly atmosphere all combine to create the most picturesque tableau.

There are burnt orange hues, harsh crescent lines, graceful gemsbok galloping beside the road and a star-studded African sky. These make your Namibia budget safari to Sossusvlei, a truly awe-inspiring experience.

Located in the heart of the Namib Desert, the oldest in the world, and home to some of the world’s highest dunes, it should come as no surprise that this vast expanse of undulating sand is one of Namibia’s premier tourist attractions.