Etosha &
Mauritius

Arrive at Hosea Kutako International Airport and transfer to Hilton Windhoek in the centre of the Namibian capital.

The day is given to rest after the international journey. Depending on your arrival time, a short guided walk through Windhoek’s historic centre is easily arranged. Dinner at the hotel.

After breakfast, transfer to Eros Airport for a private charter flight north to Mokuti Etosha — roughly an hour and a half, and a far better use of the day than the long drive. Your safari guide meets you on landing.

Lunch at the lodge, which sits 40 metres from Etosha’s Von Lindequist Gate on the park’s eastern edge, then an afternoon game drive into the park itself.

Etosha is rated among the finest wildlife reserves in Africa and holds four of the Big Five — lion, leopard, rhino and elephant — alongside more than 340 bird species and abundant giraffe, zebra, oryx and springbok. The Etosha Pan, the vast salt flat that gives the park its name, translates roughly as the Great White Place. Return before sunset.

Wake early for a guided morning bush walk, led by experienced guides alongside local Hai//om guides — descendants of the region’s first hunter-gatherers, and the reason this walk is different from a walk anywhere else. Tracks, plants, insects and the small details of the ecosystem, read by people whose families have read them for generations.

A bush breakfast follows, cooked and served in the open. Return to Mokuti for the near-Olympic pool, the Omulilo Spa, or the Ontouka Reptile Park with its crocodiles, snakes and chameleons.

The afternoon drive goes back into Etosha, working the waterholes where wildlife concentrates, with a sundowner stop as the light goes. Dinner is at SkyBoma — Namibia’s first elevated bush dining experience, eight metres above the ground with the pan and the stars in every direction.

A full day in Etosha. The park’s sparse vegetation makes for unusually easy sightings, and its waterholes draw remarkable concentrations of animals in the dry months.

Elephant come to the water in large breeding herds. Multiple lion prides range across the park. Both white and black rhino are resident. Leopard are present and elusive. Giraffe, zebra, oryx and springbok are everywhere.

The day also includes a guided interaction with a local community — an authentic visit rather than a staged performance, arranged with people who have agreed to host it. A final sundowner and bush dinner close the Namibian leg.

After breakfast, the private charter back to Windhoek, connecting to a scheduled international flight towards Mauritius.

There is no direct Windhoek to Mauritius routing. The journey connects through Johannesburg, Cape Town or Addis Ababa and typically runs 19 to 28 hours with one or two stops, which is why nothing else is scheduled for this day.

On arrival, a private transfer to Paradis Beachcomber on the Le Morne Peninsula. Yesterday was dry savannah, salt pan and wildlife; today is a turquoise lagoon and the silhouette of Le Morne Brabant.

A slow start at Paradis, with the Morne Brabant mountain filling the view.

A private guided exploration of the peninsula follows: the mountain’s UNESCO World Heritage status and the history behind it — it sheltered escaped slaves through the 18th and 19th centuries — and the dramatic coastline around its base. For active guests, a guided hike of Le Morne Brabant itself gives panoramic views over the southwest coast and the underwater-waterfall illusion below.

The afternoon is beach time on Paradis’s white sand above the lagoon, and cocktails over the Indian Ocean at sunset.

A full day through the southwest, on a route that links three places which happen to sit conveniently together.

Black River Gorges National Park is the island’s largest wilderness, with more than 50 kilometres of trails through dense forest. Chamarel Waterfall is one of the most dramatic on the island. The Seven Coloured Earth is the geological curiosity — dunes of volcanic sand in seven distinct shades.

Return to Paradis in the late afternoon.

A private transfer across the island from the southwest to the east coast after breakfast.

Check in to One&Only Le Saint Géran on its private peninsula, flanked by the Indian Ocean on one side and a sheltered lagoon on the other.

The afternoon is at leisure: more than a mile of powder-white sand, kayaking and swimming in the lagoon, or the One&Only Spa.

A full-day private yacht excursion to Île aux Cerfs: a cruise across the turquoise lagoon, snorkelling in the marine-rich water around the island, swimming, and beach time on white sand.

Lunch is a private picnic on a secluded shore. Return to Le Saint Géran in the late afternoon.

A private marine excursion from the east coast, looking for the spinner and bottlenose dolphins common in Mauritian waters, with snorkelling over the east coast reefs and a private lunch on board or on an island.

The contrast is worth noticing. Five days ago you were watching elephant come to a desert waterhole; today you are in the water on a coral reef in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

A private helicopter flight over the underwater-waterfall illusion off the Le Morne peninsula — the effect created where currents move sand over the edge of the coastal shelf, reading from above as a cascade falling into the dark. It cannot be seen from the ground or from sea level. The flight also takes in Le Morne Brabant and the southwest coast. Two passengers minimum to book, four to operate, weather permitting.

The afternoon is given entirely to wellness: a final session at the One&Only Spa, beach time, sunset cocktails, and a last dinner over the Indian Ocean.

Breakfast at leisure and a final walk along the beach, then a private transfer to Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport for your international departure.