So, what is so special about the Tracks4Africa guide books? These are not guides written by armchair travellers or the personal experience of one person, but the combined experiences of a whole community of travellers. The T4A community travel far and wide – not by luxury bus or safari vehicle but on their own wheels. Sometimes they travel in groups and sometimes as lone rangers, but they always travel by motorbike, sedan or 4WD, therefore this guide is specifically aimed at self-drive travellers.
If you are a self-drive tourist, there are five things that you need to know when you are on the road:
1. Where to sleep.
2. Where to get fuel.
3. What to see and do.
4. Where to buy supplies.
5. Where to go in case of an emergency.
If you have the Tracks4Africa Self-Drive Guide as your travel companion, the answers to all these and many more questions will be at hand. If you are well prepared and well informed, you can really enjoy the unspoilt beauty of Africa! The Tracks4Africa travel community has shared with you the places and attractions that they really love to visit time and time again.
So what is new in the second edition?
Our first editions of the self-drive guide books were well received by travellers, but we needed to update our content and we wanted to add in a few extras.
The new books have migrated from A5 to A4 in size. This was done to make space for the new atlas section which features detailed country maps at a scale of 1:1million. The cartography was taken directly from our very popular Tracks4Africa Southern Africa Atlas and we believe that this puts our guide books in a league of their own.
We also had many requests for trip planning and decided to include two suggested itineraries for first time visitors. If you never visited any of these two countries we will give you a great trip plan with map and descriptions as inspiration. For seasoned travellers we retain the detailed information on each destination so they can create DIY trips.
Accommodation and camping were all updated to reflect the latest facilities and contact details and if we could not get hold of a place it did not make it into the book. For community campsites we made mention where we could not update the content, but left them in the book for you to explore.
The two books are again printed on high quality paper and bound in a glossy semi-hard cover which allows you to fold it open without the risk of it breaking up at the seam. We used the same method with our first editions and found that this provides a quality product which is sturdy enough to withstand being used inside the car while travelling.
The two books were edited by none other than Neil Harrison who spend many years as the editor of SA4x4. Neil brings with him a wealth of publication knowledge.
Content covered in the Self-Drive Guides:
General information about each country; Safety and precaution; Trip planning; Navigation; Preparing your vehicle for overland travel; Communication; Border post red tape; Veterinary fences and Foot-and-mouth disease; Health; Pitfalls to renting a 4×4 with camping equipment; Things you should not go without.
Namibia travel regions:
• Boesmanland
• Central Namibia
• Damaraland
• Erongo
• Etosha
• Gobabis
• Kaokoland
• Kavango
• Namib-Naukluft
• North Namibia
• Ovamboland
• Skeleton Coast
• South Namibia
• Sperrgebiet
• Zambezi (Caprivi)
Featured under these travel regions are 73 towns or destinations (some are National Parks or Game Reserves). Each town or destination has a general description giving you some background on the town as well as a traveller description. For each of these towns or destinations a wealth of information was researched to answer the kind of questions that a self-drive traveller would ask.
The Namibia Self-Drive Guide lists 963 camping and lodging places to stay. Each of these listings indicates contact details, rate indication, facilities and activities offered. Also, the nearest town with direction, distance and travel time from it, is given.
For both guides the table of distance does not only feature distances between towns, but also travel times. Reliable travel times are a unique feature for which Tracks4Africa is well known and is essential information when travelling in Africa.
