PROLOGUE
Like any other keen adventurer, I spent a lot of time looking at coloured travel restriction maps in 2020. For quite some time Kayak’s map was looking depressingly red across the entire Earth. At some point in September however, the red started to turn green in some African countries. And with that some crazy ideas (at least by the rest of the world’s standards) were planted in my head.
Africa is by far my favourite continent, and safari my favourite vacation. I pondered possibilities to visit Zambia and South Africa at first, but squared on Namibia in the end. Somehow Namibia was significantly cheaper than surrounding countries yet looked just as – if not even more - incredible. This combined with supposedly easy self-driving and common-sense covid regulations made the choice seem like a smart one. In my mind at least; definitely not in my colleagues'.
As per my email records I first sent out an enquiry to a tour operator on September 18. Flights were booked by September 23 and accommodation finalised by October 2 for a departure just three weeks later. Time for an adventure!
The final itinerary ended up as follows:
Flights
- ARN-ADD-WDH (Ethiopian Airlines in Business, 787-9 / 787-8)
- WDH-ADD-FRA-ARN (Ethiopian Airlines in Business, 787-8 / A350-900 + Lufthansa in intra-European “Business”, A320neo)
Five flight sectors, 12941 miles
Places
- 1 night in Windhoek at the start of the trip
- 2 nights in Sossusvlei
- 1 night in Swakopmund
- 1 night in Brandberg
- 6 nights in Etosha National Park
- 1 night in Otjiwarongo
- 2 nights in Windhoek at the end of the trip
Seven driving sectors, 1250 miles
Flights were booked for 104,000 Krisflyer miles + 135EUR. Accommodation was booked for a few less miles and a lot more cash.
Hope you enjoy the write-up!