Chui Safari, day by day

Your guide meets you on arrival and you head north on the main road through Okahandja and Otjiwarongo, into cattle and bush country.

It’s a long first day of around 420 km, broken up with stops along the way.

You reach the Etosha area in the afternoon. If time allows, there’s a first game drive before sunset; if not, a quiet evening and an early start tomorrow.

Etosha is built around a vast white salt pan. Around its edge, springs and waterholes draw animals in from the surrounding plains, and that is where you spend most of your time.

Mornings start early, when the air is cool and animals are on the move. Your guide reads the tracks and the waterholes, and you’ll often wait quietly at one as elephant, zebra, giraffe, springbok and oryx come and go. Lion and black rhino live here too, and with luck you may see leopard or cheetah.

The middle of the day is hot and slow, a good time to rest. In the late afternoon you head out again for the best light of the day.

The longest drive of the trip, so you leave early. The road runs east via Tsumeb and Grootfontein to Rundu on the Kavango River, which forms the border with Angola, then follows the river towards the Caprivi Strip.

The country changes completely along the way: dry bush gives way to tall woodland, villages and fields, and finally wide floodplains and riverine forest.

Divundu sits on the Kavango close to the rocky rapids of Popa Falls. After a long day, an evening by the river, with hippo calling in the dark, is a good reward.

East through Bwabwata National Park, where the main road crosses wildlife country and elephant are often seen near the road. We know this region well from years of guiding in the Caprivi.

At Katima Mulilo you leave Namibia and cross into Zambia, then follow the Zambezi towards Livingstone. Border formalities take time; we handle the vehicle paperwork and permits.

Livingstone is a lively town a short drive from Victoria Falls, where the Zambezi drops into a gorge more than a kilometre and a half wide. Paths opposite the main falls lead through the rainforest the spray keeps green. Your quotation sets out how your time here is spent.

A short drive west to Kazungula, where a bridge across the Zambezi takes you into Botswana, close to the point where Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia almost meet.

Kasane is the gateway to Chobe National Park, known for one of the largest elephant populations in Africa.

In the afternoon you head out on the Chobe River. From the water you watch elephant herds come down to drink and swim, alongside hippo, crocodile, buffalo and a remarkable variety of birds.

Another long drive, south through northern Botswana’s bush to Nata, then west along the edge of the Makgadikgadi salt pans to Maun. Elephant cross this road often, so the pace is steady and careful.

Maun sits on the Thamalakane River at the south-eastern edge of the Okavango Delta, where the Okavango River spreads into a maze of channels, lagoons and islands in the Kalahari sand.

The second day is a full day here, with no driving: time to rest after the long road and to see the Delta.

West out of Maun and across the Kalahari through Ghanzi on the long, straight Trans-Kalahari road. The country is flat and open: red sand, thorn scrub and very big skies.

You overnight at Ekori Lodge near the Mamuno border post, ready for an easy crossing back into Namibia in the morning.

Cross back into Namibia at Mamuno, then drive west through Gobabis and cattle country, climbing gently back up to Windhoek.

You reach Windhoek in the afternoon, where the journey ends.

If you are flying out the same day, tell us your flight time when planning and we’ll shape the day around it.