Namibia Night and Day

Namibia’s famously dark skies, stunning desert scenery and superb wildlife make it a natural choice for a Naturetrek astronomy tour. With a population of just over two million spread across a land that is more than three times the size of the UK, this sparsely populated county offers truly breath-taking night skies. By day this tour will visit Namibia’s National Parks to enjoy the spectacular wildlife and landscapes, but as night falls, with expert guidance we will explore the southern skies with telescopes and large binoculars. 

The tour is timed to span the period in which the moon lies between the Earth and the Sun and is therefore absent from the night sky. This is the best time to see the fainter nebulae, galaxies and star clusters that are more difficult to see with a bright moon in the sky. depending upon the departure we will look at the planets in our solar system. Through a telescope it is possible to see the belts Jupiter’s atmosphere and the rings of Saturn. The Southern sky is rich with star clusters, with the two brightest globular clusters, ω Centauri and 47 Tucanae, taking centre stage. Other ‘classic’ celestial sights from southern latitudes include the Milky Way’s neighbouring galaxies: the Large and the Small Magellanic Clouds, the Southern Cross and the stars Alpha and Beta Centauri.   

Our holiday begins in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, from where we drive to the Rooisand Reserve – a wonderful opportunity to use the telescopes during a two-night stay.

West of Rooisand lies the Namib Desert with its spectacular dunes which are amongst the highest dunes in the world.  These sculpted red dunes glow as the evening light bathes them and as evening gives way, a night full of stars will follow.

Continuing to Swakopmund you will enjoy a day tour into the desert to discover the lizards, chameleons and snakes that comprise Namibia’s ‘little five’ living in the dunes.

At Twyfelfontein in Namibia’s Kunene region (formerly known as Damaraland), we enter a wilderness of rolling, bush-covered hills and plateaux. Here we will stay at the Twyfelfontein Country Lodge and explore this unique environment with its many rock engravings and paintings. We will also hope for a chance encounter with the region’s Black Rhino, Lion or and ‘desert adapted’ Elephant.

Moving north to Etosha we’ll enter one of the finest parks in Africa. At its heart is the Etosha saltpan, an enormous shallow depression — over 100 kilometres across — with numerous perennial springs around its edges which attract large concentrations of birds and mammals. This is one of the last places in the world where Elephant and Black Rhino can both be seen, plus predators such as Lion, Cheetah and Leopard, and antelopes ranging in size from the giant Eland to the diminutive Damara Dik-dik.

Finally, we head south to the private game reserve of Erindi (Okonjima in 2020). The expansive savannah is home to a wide range of mammals and birds and whilst there we enjoy exhilarating game drives in open-sided vehicles.