Our Tour with Intrepid: Route and Schedule

This is part of a series in which I’ll describe our time on tour with Intrepid. For 22 days, we joined the “Cape Town to Vic Falls: Basix” tour, along with three crew members and nine trip mates.

One of the highlights of our time in Africa was the three weeks we spent on an overland tour with Intrepid. Having never been to Africa before, we felt more comfortable booking an organized, small-group tour for a few weeks before branching out on our own. Months of research went into selecting this tour, which was eventually chosen for a few reasons: the route and schedule, small group size, ethical integrity, and recommendations from friends. Looking back, this was the perfect tour for us and we are so happy that we made the decision to join for three weeks!

The city of Cape Town was our starting and ending point of our African adventures.

Route Overview

When researching which tour to take, the route played a large factor in our decision. With a friend in Cape Town, we knew that would be a logical starting or ending point to our tour. Victoria Falls is one of the most popular attractions in Africa and for good reason. Using this as our second starting/ending point made it easy to trace a route between the two locations and find a tour to fit within those parameters. Although there are definitely variations on these, there are ultimately two ways to go between Cape Town and Victoria Falls. One leads you through Namibia and Botswana while the other goes from Cape Town to Johannesburg and north to Victoria Falls. We quickly chose the first option, allowing us to travel to Namibia and the Okavango Delta in Botswana, both places we had only ever seen on National Geographic. Once we selected our route and found the tour with Intrepid, the rest was easy!

Victoria Falls was a “must do” on our list of things to see in Africa.

Route and Schedule Details

In order to help give some background to the posts that I’ll be writing about some of these locations, here is the schedule and route information for our entire tour. More details can be found on the Intrepid tour website, if interested.

Day 1: February 12 – Cape Town, South Africa. Welcome meeting at our hostel to meet our fellow tour members and discuss the trip with our tour leader, Makori.

Day 2: February 13 – Cederberg, Western Cape, South Africa. Stayed at a campsite located on a winery and enjoyed a wine tasting in the evening.

Day 3: February 14 – Orange River, Namibia. Crossed the border into Namibia. Had a free afternoon at our campground, situated on the riverbank.

Day 4: February 15 – Fish River Canyon, Namibia. Hiked along the canyon and watched the sunset from an observation platform on the edge of the canyon.

Day 5: February 16 – Sesriem, Namibia. Had a long drive to a sandy camp in the middle of the Namib Desert. Tried to go to bed early to prepare for our early morning wake-up the next day.

Day 6: February 17 – Sossuvlei, Namibia. Woke up around 4:00am to hike up Dune 45 in order to watch the sunrise. Took a 4×4 Jeep ride to Deadvlei. Drove to our first bush camp of the trip, where we hiked up a rock to watch sunset and had a bonfire after dinner.

Day 7: February 18 – Cape Cross Seal Colony and Swakopmund, Namibia. Spent the morning at the seal colony and then checked into cabins in Swakopmund. Got a tour of the town and signed up for activities in the next few days.

Day 8: February 19 – Swakopmund, Namibia. Went on a camel ride in the desert in the morning. Had sushi for lunch and seafood for dinner with the group.

Day 9: February 20 – Swakopmund, Namibia. Jon went on a quad-bike tour of the desert and I went shopping. Ate lunch at the German brewpub in town and dinner at the pub near our cabin.

Day 10: February 21 – Spitzkoppe, Namibia. Set up our second bush camp at the base of Spitzkoppe, an old mountain. Took a hike with a local guide to see ancient rock art.

Day 11: February 22 – Etosha National Park, Namibia. Arrived at Etosha and did an afternoon game drive in our truck. Went on a night game drive in an open-air 4×4 with a few others from the park.

Day 12: February 23 – Etosha National Park, Namibia. Did a game drive in the morning on our way from one campground to the next, stopping at the Etosha Pan on the way.

Day 13: February 24 – Grootfontein, Namibia. Had a free afternoon at the campground where we caught up on journals and swam in the pool.

Day 14: February 25 – San Bushmen at Grootfontein, Namibia. Visited the San Bushmen, participating in a bush walk where we learned about and practiced skills they use to make fires, hunt, and dig for food. I danced with the women while Jon smoked a pipe with the men.

Day 15: February 26 – Bagani, Namibia. Spent my birthday having drinks and a birthday cake overlooking the Okavango River. Joined a local group singing and dancing.

Day 16: February 27 – Okavango Delta, Botswana. Crossed the border into Botswana. Rode in mokoro boats out to an island to bush camp for the night. Took a dusk mokoro ride to watch hippos swim past us in the river.

Day 17: February 28 – Okavango Delta, Botswana. Went on a bush walk in the morning, identifying animal tracks and scat. Rode in mokoro boats to another island to camp. Jon went on another bush walk while I played board games with friends.

Day 18: March 1 – Bagani, Namibia. Crossed the border back into Namibia for the night. Returned to the camp along the river and relaxed for the afternoon.

Day 19: March 2 – Chobe National Park, Botswana. Crossed the border at a different location into Botswana. Had a free afternoon at the lodge within Chobe National Park. Had sundowners overlooking the Chobe River.

Day 20: March 3 – Chobe National Park, Botswana. Went on a dawn game drive in open-air 4×4’s. Returned to camp for lunch and a swim. Went on a safari boat in the afternoon to spot animals from the river.

Day 21: March 4 – Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Crossed the border into Zimbabwe and set up camp in the town of Victoria Falls. Went zip-lining across the gorge and had a farewell dinner with our entire group.

Day 22: March 5 – Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Said goodbye to a couple of our friends from Intrepid. Toured Victoria Falls and got soaking wet. Went on a sunset river cruise with a few others.

This was our truck, crew, and group for the three-week Intrepid tour.

Post-Intrepid Route and Schedule

While our tour officially ended on March 5, we elected to stay a couple more days in Victoria Falls and then cross over into Zambia. For sake of continuity, here is the rest of that schedule.

March 6 – Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Relaxed by the pool and caught up on journals. Had another farewell dinner with the friends still left, who would be continuing on the next leg of the Intrepid tour.

March 7 – Livingstone, Zambia. Crossed the border into Zambia. Toured the Livingstone Museum.

March 8 – Livingstone, Zambia. Toured Victoria Falls from the Zambian side and got soaking wet.

March 9 – Livingstone, Zambia. Ate a caterpillar with lunch (as part of a local Zambian sampler platter of food). Took a private game drive of Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, where we got to take a walk to see some black rhinos.

March 10 – Flew from Zambia to South Africa, rented a car, and started our road trip along the Garden Route (more on that in a future post!).

Summary

As you can see, we were extremely busy during our 22 days with Intrepid (and extra days at the end)! We saw more than we could have ever done on our own, had we traveled independently. While we don’t do many organized tours like this, the tour with Intrepid was definitely worth every penny we spent and we wouldn’t hesitate to do it again!

In Bagani on my birthday, we took a pontoon boat ride down the river to a small sand island to watch the sunset. What a special way to celebrate!

To learn more about our time on tour with Intrepid, read the other posts in this series:

5 thoughts on “Our Tour with Intrepid: Route and Schedule”