Driving from Capetown to Windhoek and beyond
 

I am flying into Cape Town from Joburg early afternoon and need to be in Windhoek the next evening and was contemplating hiring a car in CPT and drive up and would have a few questions:

1) First of all: is this reasonably feasible or mad? There's about 1500kms/920miles, so I reckon about 14 hours drive, so let us say about 4-5 hours drive on the day of arrival and 9-10 hours drive the next day.

2) Any particular danger/hazard to be aware of? I understand that one should be very careful of Kudus and other forms of wildlife emerging suddenly onto the road. Is this primarily an issue at dawn/dusk and night-time, or should I be ready for this to happen during daylight hours as well? Any other potential problem/danger that I should be concerned about, bearing in mind that I will be traveling on my own? From what I hear, the Northern Cape area is generally quite safe, and so is Namibia, still...

3) What would be a good stopping point enroute? Given that I am due to land at 12.50pm, I am unlikely to be in the car and on the road much before 2pm, so that should give me about 4 1/2 hours driving before nightfall (this will be in early April). This would suggest Springbok as a possible stopping point, which seems to have a couple of OK BnBs.

4) Which would be the best car rental company to use, taking to account that I will have to drive on gravel roads in Namibia? I am minded to use Hertz (not least because of upgrade vouchers I have with them) but their T&Cs seem to exclude any coverage when using untarred roads, even with Super CDW. As far as I can see, however, this seems to be pretty much the case with other mainstream rental companies too. The gravel roads I intend to use are, it seems, reasonably OK ones (C24/C19 from Windhoek to Sesriem and C14 Sesriem to Walvis Bay) and it would therefore be an ordinary saloon car rather than a 4x4 that I would hire.

1. It's feasible. And depending on your temperament either soul-destroyingly boring or a peaceful escape into the zen-state induced by the endlessly repetitious. You would also have be pretty focussed to achieve more than 100 km/hr overall; but it won't be fun if you feel pressurised to achieve stringent mileage goals.

2. Fatigue would be number one. You will find an amazing number of heavy vehicles on that road - at least as far as Springbok. With that and the aggressive driving habits down here you need to stay very alert. As you mentioned the occasional buck is a hazard particularly between dusk and dawn.

3. Not a fundi about this but Springbok is big enough to offer some options.

4. No idea about this, sorry.

I'd reconsider not hiring a 4x4. We did and had a much more comfortable journey including that road up from Sesriem to Windhoek (which was a pretty long haul on gravel taking us about 6.5 hours).

Friends of ours who'd been there before us hired a saloon and got stuck on that same road, just bogged down in the gravel. The other thing they'd warned us of was the constant noise of the gravel banging against the bottom of the standard car which really got to them. Of course you can't go much faster in a 4x4 but you will probably be more comfortable.

The animals which appeared to most like sitting on the road during the day were baboons but there were others such as ostriches so you probably need to be careful during the day though it's not as much of a problem as at night.

We hired with Budget from Windhoek and they also excluded gravel road cover so I think that's fairly standard.

I'd fly into Windhoek and rent a vehicle there - hire one with some decent clearance and traction at least, and if you are visiting the National Parks (e.g. Etosha in particular,) do not rent an open bakkie, er, pickup truck, as they are generally not allowed when the bed is exposed (not covered by a cap, etc.) iirc. Namibia isn't anywhere nearly as crowded for driving, and I'd think Capetown to Windhoek could be unnervingly tiring - and yes, there can be critters and other hard-to-see obstacles at night. At 100 kph, a kudu kud killya.

Pre-booked tour or D-I-Y?
 

We plan to visit early in 2009 via CPT. The plan is to spend a few days in Cape Town, travel to Namibia and tour, then back to Cape Town.

I had thought of driving from Cape Town to Windhoek and imagined we would take about 3 days each way. Based on the advice in this thread, I expect we'll fly.

I don't like organised tours in principle, but believe there are pre-booked drive tours of Namibia available from Windhoek and Swakopmund. I'd really value advice:

- advantages/disadvantages of pre-booked drive tours of Namibia;
- reputable agencies in Namibia or SA offering pre-booked tours of Nambia.

Thanks for your help.

My hat is off to you. Take a lumbar cushion. And plenty of music and audiobooks.

Thanks JDiver, you've done it again "a kudu kud killya"

That's a keeper!

A good friend of ours did the driving for us in South Africa. The off paved road driving injured his back. We felt terrible having injured him and he felt worse.

Frankly I'd fly as much as possible.

I am like you, no 'organised' tours in principle.
We did a trip to Namibia many years ago. Flew to Windhoek, rented a VW Microbus there. Our main destination was Etosha , but we took two days to drive there and on the way back we went to Swakopmund as well. Booked hotels and rest camps in Etosha in advance and had a very pleasant experience. Namibia is still comparatively quiet and relatively safe.
I would do it the same way again.

About 18 months ago we went to Namibia via Cape Town and we priced options for land arrangements in Namibia from Namibian companies along with Expert Africa in the UK. We found the prices to be not that different then so we got Expert Africa to make the land arrangements.

Independently we booked our stuff for South Africa at both end of the Namibia trip and our own flights from Cape Town to and from Windhoek with SAA.

Normally I'd not use an agent but book independently. However if you want to stay at any of the Wilderness Safaris hotels they didn't then accept independent bookings. We wanted to spend a couple of nights at Kulala so we had to use an agent for that part at least. Expert Africa booked the car hire for us as well.

If you are set on certain places to stay then I'd suggest you prebook as some places are very small and it can be a long distance before you reach the next place.

We had 8 nights there - 1 at a lodge about an hour north of Windhoek, 3 nights at Etosha (split between Halali restcamp and Aoba lodge just outside) so that we entered Etosha from the west side, stayed over in the middle and then out at the east, 1 night at Olive Grove in Windhoek, 2 nights at Kulala and back for 1 night at Windhoek before flying back to Cape Town.

We drove ourselves throughout and had a great time. Enjoyed it more than we expected to. Driving is tiring though so you need to allow plenty of time to get to your next stop - over-estimate how long it will take to err on the side of caution. And as I've said before I'd definitely recommend a 4x4.

Not sure if this is any help but let me know if I can help further.

Thanks, NorthOrSouth and thijsseh. We agree on the 'no travel agent if possible' aspect!

I had not heard of Expert Africa and will look them up. They seem to offer the right mix, and I would think about combining your tips.

I thought that we may be a little premature in booking now for early next year. Except that I learnt in a friendly PM that polar bear opportunities for Autumn this year are already difficult, so we'll be planning now.

Thanks again.

Um, yes, that was my PM when I was seeking advice from you. Glad to return the favour!

Yup, I didn't want to out you here but I was grateful for your advice. Those polar bears won't be there for ever. PS to confused others: we're not looking for polar bears in Africa!

I'm driving from Kasane (Botswana) to Walvis Bay this June in a rented VW Jetta. We're going to go by way of Etosha - do you think we'll run across any issues? I hear the roads are very good the whole way down. I've been to Namibia, so I know what to expect in/around Whk and Swakopmund.. just never ventured into the North/Caprivi.

How developed is Windhoek airport and the city in general? Should one expect full services including rental cars, tourism info at the airport or should everything be fully planned in advance?

Windhoek airport is only a couple of gates. I only flew into the airport - never actually went to the ticket counter. Windhoek was much more developed than I would have thought - ATMs/Restaurants/hotels, etc. I was surprised how the tourist office was closed on a Saturday though - it looked pretty nice inside through the windows... Good luck!