Etendeka Mountain Camp

Simple, fresh and wholesome meals are prepared using solar power or on fires and are served communally in the open-sided central dining area, furnished with a long table, directors' chairs and an overhead fan. The seating area is huge, with stone walls, an open bar and strategically placed seating areas facing the views.

Stay in one of 10 meru-style tents, which are reached from the dining tent via pathways. They're all equipped simply but very comfortably, with en-suite bathrooms (flush toilets, hot and cold running water) and outside bucket showers that work far more efficiently than you may think. Outside is a shaded veranda with chairs in which to settle with a drink and watch the passing wildlife cavalcade, or view the stars.

Explore the area on foot or in open safari vehicles with knowledgeable guides. This environment incorporates most of Namibia’s unique natural attractions – desert-adapted wildlife (including the threatened black rhino), basalt mountains and riverbeds shaded by mopane trees. Look out for herds of oryx, lion, mountain zebra and, between the rocks, insects and scorpions (your guide is eagle-eyed). Talking of eagles, birders should keep their binoculars at hand to spot the rare long-billed lark or a snake-eagle snatching up a scorpion.