Wild Dog Safaris in Namibia – Detailed review of my tour

Discover my detailed review of the Wild Dog Safari 2 week tour in Namibia. Wondering how I saw all these amazing locations in Namibia? Well it is easy to self drive there, but it was one of my very first big trip so I opted for a small group tour. Here is the independent review of my 2 week camping trip with Wild dog safari.

Content

BACKGROUND  - WILD DOG SAFARI TOUR

ITINERARY - 2 week Namibian Experience

TRANSPORTATION

TENTS & CAMPS WITH WILD DOG SAFARI

Hotels

Food

Tour guides

Atmosphere

Any question? Leave a comment below...

BACKGROUND  - WILD DOG SAFARI TOUR

First of all I selected this tour myself and paid entirely for it. This review is fully independent.

• Organizer: Wild Dog Safari
• Tour: 2 week Namibian Experience (combination of the 7 day Northern Adventure & the 7 day Southern Swing)
• Dates: 26 October 2012 to 8 November 2012

General Comments:

Before entering details, I will start this review by saying that my main problem with my Wild Dog Safari is that now I compare all my trips to it and they just do not measure up… Between the beauty of Namibia, my first experience of safari and the fact that Ilove camping,this was really some fantastic two weeks. Of course not everything was perfect; and if you want your own toilets next to you and just unpack your own luggage, this trip is not for you. I personally find that camping is a great way to get to know the other travelers and to feel closer to nature. And although we need time to build the tent and put it down I find we wasted very little time compared to a trip in hotels.

ITINERARY - 2 week Namibian Experience

The 2 week Namibia Experience of Wild Dog Safari is a combination of their South Tour and North Tour.

The South tour covers a lot of different landscapes and the North tour is more focus on wildlife. I was very satisfied with the itinerary which allowed us to see a large variety of places and sceneries. Of course, this is a big country so we had a lot of time in the truck but as the views were inspiring, it did not feel that long.

My only negative comments here would be that the loop to Lüderitz and the ghost town Kolmanskop felt unnecessary. People choosing this tour are interested in landscapes and there was not much there. However I can understand that some people might enjoy the history.

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TRANSPORTATION

Our bus was in very good condition except some small leaks we discovered during one day of heavy rain… It makes some memories…
As we were not more than 10 on these group tours I did we had plenty of space and we all could see very well with the huge windows which can be moved down to take pictures.

It also as a roof that opens for game viewing.

TENTS & CAMPS WITH WILD DOG SAFARI

Tents are spacious (enough for 2) and in reasonable conditions (Considering how much they are used, assembled and disassembled). However be aware that they do not supply pillows!

On the first week, some of us were hard core and decided a few nights to sleep under the stars. Here our equipment is under the roof waiting to be moved for the night

We had very different camps from the very charming one part in a private farm, to the big one in Etosha National Park (no charm there but so close to a waterhole that I will have a great story to tell you).

One of them was even in the middle of nature with no fences so we had a lessons on how to get out at night (I will also have a great story to tell you here about a wild sunset)

Facilities

Again very different facilities in the various camps. I have no picture of the less interesting ones but they were always clean.

Here is an example where they were beautiful:

And in this camp we had a shower with a view over nature – loved it!

Regarding stops on the road, make sure you always have small coins to pay for the toilets

HOTELS

I was quite satisfied with the rooms in Windhoek before, in between and after the tours. The only thing is that you had to walk to get to the city and for those with no good sense of orientation it could be difficult… those can take taxis

In Lüderitz and Swakopmund, rooms were very simple but nice. The hotel in Lüderitz had just had a fire in the kitchen so they organized for us to have breakfast at a café nearby which was very nice.

FOOD

Food was good. My only problem here was the quantity available for lunch. I am French and a small sandwich is not sufficient for me… you know French people, we looove our lunch with entree, main, bread and cheese and dessert….not a few things between 2 slices of bread!

At breakfast we had bread, jam, cereals, yogurt etc

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At lunch mostly ham, cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, bread and fruits

And in the evening they were doing some very nice warm cooking with stews, rice, mashed potatoes, various local meats…

TOUR GUIDES - WILD DOG SAFARI

Well you can never be sure with guides… We had 2 differents for the first and the second tours.

My preference was for the first one who was very knowledgeable about everything from geology to animals to history to birds (we had bird aficionados). Here he is resting, waiting for us:

I found our second guide less knowledgeable but he was still very nice. And he did one thing on a safari that was so amazing that we had a little ceremony to give him a card of the Best Tour Guide as a sign of our gratitude

THE GROUP

At the end a group tour depends a lot on the dynamics on the tour… and I think the fact that the tour is camping already ensures that the people have similar expectations… Here is the group from my first week:

Discover all the locations visited on the tour with many photos on the Namibia Guide:

Note:

When I was doing research before my trip I found a YouTube video about the 10 day Namibian explorer with Wild Dog Safari. That can give you a feel for it.

Any question? Leave a comment below...