SPECIAL SAFARI ADVENTURE FOR GIRAFFE LOVERS TO NAMIBIA
This is the perfect safari for anyone who is fascinated by giraffes, wants to travel with a purpose, and experience a rare opportunity for hands on conservation. Furthermore, you’ll journey through some of Namibia’s most remarkable wilderness areas and desert landscapes.
MORE THAN A SAFARI
This immersive nine-day safari offers the unique chance to go behind the scenes with a hands-on, educational conservation experience, and spend time with experts who are dedicated to helping save one of Africa’s most iconic species. You’ll be able to see first-hand how your travel can make a meaningful difference to the areas you visit.
You’ll be able to see Namibia’s desert adapted giraffe up close while actively contributing to their preservation and protection. Over the nine days you’ll gain fascinating insights into giraffe, help to observe and monitor their activity, capture data, and have a very rare opportunity to get involved with a tagging operation in the wild.
The safari has been created in collaboration between Natural Selection (who operate the three luxurious safari lodges in which you’ll stay) and the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) who are the only organization in the world to concentrate solely on the conservation and management of giraffe throughout Africa. You’ll work alongside scientists from the foundation, and your guides for the safari will be giraffe specialists with many years’ experience in the field.
THE ITINERARY
This extraordinary journey starts in the game-rich Etosha Heights Private Reserve where GCF scientists will teach you how to identify and track giraffe. This private reserve on the border of Etosha National Park is also a safe haven for endangered white and black rhino.
The safari then moves on to the raw and rugged wilderness of Kaokoland where you will facilitate in research and work with the team tagging and tracking the desert dwelling giraffe in the Hoanib River Valley area. The final destination is the enigmatic Skeleton Coast, which is a naturalist’s dream and the perfect finale to a spectacular safari.
The Details
Day 1: 23rd July 2025
You will start your trip in Windhoek. Whilst here, you will meet the Executive Director and co-founder of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation for a pre-trip dinner and a relaxed chat (dinner location to be confirmed).
Accommodation: The Weinberg is a comfortable and stylish 41-room hotel located in Klein Windhoek, approximately 30 minutes from the international airport. The hotel is built around a heritage building, on the site of a former wine estate and includes a superb spa and swimming pool as well as different restaurant options on the estate.
Day 2-3: 24th-25th July
You will drive from Windhoek to Etosha Heights Private Reserve, spending the next two nights at Etosha Mountain Lodge where you will learn all about the conservation research carried out by GCF and their partners in the larger Etosha landscape from Martina Küsters, GCF’s Etosha Heights Conservation Centre Coordinator.
She will show you how to check the camera traps; help with giraffe identification; teach you to track the giraffe, as well as learn about the endangered black rhino, elephant and lions on the reserve. You’ll enjoy exclusive game drives and close encounters with a variety of wildlife species to understand firsthand how conservation plays its part in the reserve.
Accommodation: Etosha Mountain Lodge offers nine classically Namibian chalets, a beautiful main ‘lapa’ area, and a cool swimming pool for the hot African days. Perched on a dolomite hill offering sweeping views of the Namibian landscape, no matter where you choose to relax, the camera-loving panoramas stretching ahead are magnificent.
Day 4-6: 26th-28th July 2025
Today you take an early drive from Etosha to Kaokoland, driving through the picturesque Grootberg Pass and remote villages along the way. Hoanib Valley, located deep in north-western Namibia, is a remote and wild, and combines impressive mountains with desert expanses and nomadic Himba settlements. Its unique wildlife include the desert-adapted giraffe.
This is where the hands-on giraffe conservation work begins!
Working alongside Dr Julian Fennessy (GCF Co-founder and Director of Conservation), as well as Dr Sara Ferguson (GCF Conservation Health Coordinator), over the next three days you will be spending time observing the desert-adapted giraffe living in this tough environment. You will get the once in a lifetime opportunity to be involved in a tagging operation, where you can assist the GCF team in fitting GPS satellite tags to giraffe, so they can be followed remotely, allowing the team to learn more about their movements and how they use their habitat in this remote landscape.
These activities are part of the longest running giraffe monitoring and research programme in Africa and help to inform GCF’s conservation actions throughout Africa. After your days out in the field and if time allows, enjoy game drives, a dip in the camp swimming pool, and some well-deserved sundowners.
Accommodation: Hoanib Valley Camp is an elegant, tented camp, offering a simple aesthetic that matches the rugged landscape paired with absolute comfort. There are six luxurious tents raised on spacious decks, each with their own veranda and the perfect place to sit back and marvel at the magnitude of your surroundings.
Day 7-8: 29-30 July
Today you’ll take an impressively scenic transfer drive from Hoanib Valley Camp to Shipwreck Lodge (approximately 5 hours). You’ll pass incredible rock formations and look out for desert elephant digging for water, before arriving at the crashing waves and rolling dunes of the Skeleton Coast.
The Skeleton Coast, a raw and rugged sweep of coastline along the Namibian Atlantic Ocean that is both desolate and breathtaking. Here towering dunes and wind-swept plains are buffeted by the icy Atlantic ocean which is notorious for its rough seas, rocky shallows and thick fog, and claiming the lives of many sailors. But there’s much more to the area than simple isolation. Beneath this seemingly barren exterior, you’ll discover unique, desert-adapted wildlife and flora, absorb the camera-bending vistas and enjoy a selection of activities that truly make the most of the environment.
You’ll be staying in the Skeleton Coast Central Concession Area, a piece of land between the Hoarusib and Hoanib rivers. This restricted area, within the National Park, contains irreplaceable and vulnerable wildlife habitat for species of the highest conservation importance, including desert-adapted elephant and the elusive brown hyena. Importantly, it also hosts the only other viable desert adapted lion population in Namibia outside of Etosha National Park. By staying here you will discover why this area is so important for the critically endangered species that live here, and how your stay contributes to the conservation efforts of these desert-adapted animals. This area is also home to the largest colonies of Cape fur seals in the world, and if you are lucky enough you’ll see Angola giraffe traversing the sand dunes.
Activities here will include 4×4 game drives along the Hoarusib River in search of the desert-dwelling wildlife, the unusual plants and lichens that survive in the area and to see the Clay Castles formations. Enjoying the sunset from the top of the dunes and beach-combing for whale bones and shipwreck debris are also.
The perfect end to an extraordinary giraffe conservation focused safari.
Accommodation: Shipwreck Lodge is a haven of luxury and comfort in the midst of this rugged landscape, a sanctuary where you can relax and rejuvenate after your unforgettable journey. The 10 cabins uniquely designed around the enigmatic shipwrecks that line the coastline, provide a peaceful retreat.
Day 9: 31 July 2025
Today you take a scenic flight back to Windhoek, from where you’ll connect with onward arrangements.
MEET YOUR GUIDES
Emma and Kate’s career paths crossed when they started working together at the Giraffe GCF in Namibia. They both ran and managed a long-term conservation research programme in north-west Namibia and know everything there is to know about the organisation and the desert-dwelling Angolan giraffe.
With years of experience in the conservation space, they love nothing better than to inspire wildlife conservation and connect guests with nature. They are now part of the Natural Selection guiding team based in Botswana where they habituate the giraffe at Thamo Telele lodge near Maun, and leading the guest giraffe experience there. They also currently facilitate a country-wide Giraffe Genetics Programme and still work closely with GCF.
THE GIRAFFE CONSERVATION FOUNDATION
The GCF is an international, science-based conservation organisation providing innovative approaches to save giraffe in the wild. The GCF is active in 20 African countries, and their work has an impact on over 400,000 sq. km or giraffe habitat.
Through their extensive work on the ground and partnerships with governments, NGOs and universities, the GCF team has discovered that there are four distinct species of giraffe in Africa, whereas before there was thought to be only one. They are: Masai, northern, reticulated, and southern (the latter are found in Northwest Namibia). These four species are geographically isolated and have unique characteristics. With only 117,000 giraffe remaining in the wild, understanding these differences is crucial for effective conservation efforts. This finding has elevated the conservation importance of the different numbers, with some giraffe species so low in the wild that they are classified as Critically Endangered.
The GCF’s primary objective is to raise awareness and support towards securing a future for giraffe and the conservation of their habitat in Africa. This includes support of the conservation of habitat for giraffe; identification of key threats to giraffe in Africa and develop innovative ways to mitigate them; raising awareness of and promoting the value of giraffe conservation and the implementation of projects and programs, in co-operation with local communities and partner institutions.
COSTS AND INCLUSIONS
This itinerary starts at NAD 334,930 per person sharing (price may vary depending on numbers).
Included:
- Accommodation as specified on a sharing basis,
- All meals (excludes lunch on the first and last day)
- Local drinks while on safari (not included at The Weinberg)
- Laundry service on safari (not included at The Weinberg)
- Activities as detailed
- Road transfers as detailed
- Scenic flight on the last day from Shipwreck Lodge to Windhoek
- All entrance and park fees
- A donation of NAD 62,500 per person will be donated directly to GCF on your behalf, to help with the costs of the tagging operation including giraffe capture and data analysis.
- 5% of every guest’s stay in addition to a per person per night Conservation, Community and Reserve Fee, goes directly to regional conservation and community outreach initiatives in the areas you are staying.
Excluded:
- International flights
- Drinks at The Weinberg
- Premium brand drinks throughout
- Travel insurance
- Gratuities
For further details and to check availability please contact our team of Africa experts.
We can also help with any extended travel arrangements at either side of this safari, perhaps to explore more of Namibia or combine with another Africa safari destination. Call us on +44 (0) 1787 888590 to discuss your requirements, or email us via our Contact Us page.
