Excellent guide
Last year we went on an interesting 5-day trip to Namibia. I am a professor at a US university, and I brought a group of 3 students to Namibia for their capstone project. Our guide was Greg from Lark Journeys (http://www.larkjourneys.com/) -- he was great, and I'm writing to recommend him to others.
Our goal was to spend a couple of days in a village near Ondangwa, and then spend a day in Etosha. I wanted flexibility in the plans, so we could adjust to what we find interesting. As it turned out only 1 of the 4 nights was spent in the location initially planned. The flexibility of course made it harder on Greg, but he did an amazing job making all work out great.
We had a very packed 5 days. We arrived in Windhoek on the 7:30 AM flight from Frankfurt. After a brief stop in Windhoek for supplies, we drove up north -- we didn't have lodging set, as we wanted to see how far we'd get driving in one day. We ended up in Tsumeb, and Greg found a nice hotel for us there.
The next morning we got up early and drove to Ondangwa, where we met our contact in the nearby village. We camped out there the second night, which was our original plan.
The plan for the rest of the trip changed when I decided during the trip that we should go to Opuwa, to see the Himba and Herero people. This made things hard for Greg, as he did not have time to prepare, and had to improvise on the spot. But he managed to work things out great. We drove to Opuwa in the afternoon of the third day, and spent the night in a nice hotel in town that Greg found for us. Greg also arranged for a local guide to bring us to a Himba village. The visit to Opuwa was the highlight of the trip for me.
The Opuwa detour changed our Etosha plans ... initially we were going to stay in a lodge near the eastern entrance, but Greg came up with a new Etosha plan to make it work with the Opuwa visit. On our fourth day we drove to the western entrance of Etosha, and had a great game drive through Etosha to the Okaukuejo lodge, where we stayed for the fourth night. Greg drove us on another great game drive the next morning before bringing us to the airport in Windhoek for our evening flight.
We had a jam-packed 5 days, with lots of driving throughout the northern half of Namibia. Days began early in the morning and ended in the evening. I changed our plans throughout the trip. But all worked great, thanks to Greg!
Greg was also great to talk to, and we learned a lot about Namibia from him. He is very educated and knowledgeable (eg, he had a prestigious Young African Leaders Initiative fellowship in the US). We all enjoyed getting to know him.
I highly recommend Lark Journeys to others.
