Wilderness Serra Cafema

Cradled against the ancient mountains, Sossusvlei Desert Lodge is renowned for its desert experience with luxurious accommodation overlooking the stark yet beautiful Namib Desert. Designed to capture the splendour and solitude of the desert, just ten stone and glass desert villas spread out along the curve of the escarpment allowing absolute privacy. Each air-conditioned suite features a private veranda, split-level bedroom and living room with fireplace, en-suite glass-encased bathroom and outdoor shower. The villas are equipped with a stunning star-viewing skylight, discreet CD system, custom-stocked personal bar and compact spotting scope for magnificent star and game viewing. The guest area, where walls have become windows that fold away completely, boasts unimpeded desert vistas. The split-level Lodge features a fire-lit bar, comfortable sitting room, swimming pool, wraparound verandas and a Safari Shop. A fine selection of wines from an impressive walk-in wine cellar complements delicious Pan African meals. Guests can escape the desert heat with a revitalizing midday dip in the pool fed by water from an underground spring. At sunset, animals are drawn to a nearby waterhole, enhancing desert sundowner drinks.

Set high on a hill overlooking Ongava Private Reserve’s plains along the south-west border of Etosha National Park, Little Ongava comprises just three luxury villas, offering privacy and the utmost comfort. Each of the thatched villas feels like a home, with a king sized bed, beautiful open bathroom, fireplace, private plunge pool and veranda making the most of the surrounding panorama. A board walk snakes through the rocks connecting the villas to a main lounge and dining area that looks down onto a watering hole below, a real draw to wildlife throughout the night. Activities in the reserve include game drives, rhino tracking, nature walks, birding and use of a wildlife hide. There are also excursions into the neighbouring Etosha National Park.

Placed at the confluence of two tributaries in a broad valley of the Kaokoveld Desert, the camp offers an unforgettable gateway from which to experience both the thrillingly desolate Skeleton Coast and the private Palmwag Concession, alive with desert-adapted wildlife. You’ll get a feel for the exclusivity and wonderful remoteness of your accommodation as you fly in by light aircraft – the only way to access the camp. The imitate, luxury tented camp consists of just seven twin-bedded suites and one family unit, each complete with shaded outdoors decks from which to contemplate the valley’s starkly stunning, moon-like landscape. Scenic flights over desert shores reveal lonely shipwrecks, massive dunefields, floodplains and the Auses Spring. Explore the Hoanib Riverbed for sightings of elephant, lion, giraffe, gemsbok and springbok, shaggy brown hyaena and opportunistic black-backed jackal, or head to the rocky shoreline to get an earful of the noisy Cape fur seal colony. Unravel the mysterious history of the original ancient Strandloper people and the enigmatic stone circles they left behind and encounter the Welwitschia on a nature walk – one of the oldest and strangest plants on the planet.

You’ll find Wilderness Desert Rhino Camp in a wide valley, nestled amid the undulating hills of the 450 000-hectare Palmwag Concession. This tranquil area is recognised for its minimalist beauty and the large range of desert-adapted wildlife that call the area their home, most noticeably for its free-roaming black rhino population, the largest in Africa. Lodging at the camp is divided between eight raised Meru-style canvas tents with front verandas that take in expansive landscape of the dramatic Etendeka Mountains and the plains scattered with euphorbia and ancient welwitschia plants. The tented dining and lounge areas have also been elevated to provide panoramic views during meal times and moments of relaxation. There’s also an attractive pool to cool off in and a fire pit for enjoying nights spent stargazing and swapping tales. During your stay, you can take part in daily rhino tracking activities on foot and by vehicle and learn about the Save the Rhino Trust with whom the lodge collaborates.