Elephant Conservation in Namibia: Full Itinerary

- Costs

	Pound sterling (£)	US Dollar ($)	Euros (€)
2 weeks	580	1160	754
4 weeks	1025	2050	1333
8 weeks	1950	3895	2535
12 weeks	2895	5790	3765

Please note that when completing the online booking form, you should select the applicable start date and specifiy your desired trip duration in the 'Other Details and Information' section.

Orientation & Damaraland Homesteads

Week 1 - Arrive in Namibia, get to know your new teammates, learn to live in the bush and work as a team constructing protection walls around Damaraland homesteads to protect future generations of desert elephants.

This elephant conservation volunteering trip begins in Swakopmund, a seaside resort on the northwest of Namibia, where volunteers will meet at a pre-arranged time and location. On the Sunday before volunteers head up to camp, the project staff will give you a briefing. You will also have the chance to meet the other volunteers who will be working towards elephant conservation over the coming weeks. After stocking up on supplies, you make the three-hour journey north to your base camp in Damaraland, in the north-central part of Namibia.

Damaraland is a vast and sparse area with a small human population, located on communal trust land. Due to the natural conditions of the area, it cannot be used for commercial agriculture and so has become a haven for desert adapted animals, such as the endangered black rhino, oryx, giraffe, springbuck, kudu, steenbok, baboon, lion, leopard, cheetah, spotted hyena, brown hyena, black backed jackal and more. Today, this land is widely regarded as one of the few remaining true wilderness areas on the planet.

This Yomps elephant conservation volunteering trip is divided into two main sections, which alternate on a weekly basis. You will spend the first week acclimatising to your new surroundings, getting to know your new teammates, and learning the skills and knowledge you need to be an active team member over the coming weeks that you volunteer in Namibia. This includes subjects such as camp craft, bush craft, compiling identification kits on animals and traditional building skills. In the second week, you join project staff on a week’s patrol of the area to monitor the local herds of desert elephants.

Each morning you will rise early and have breakfast around the campfire, before setting off to the project site to make the most of the cooler daylight hours. In the first week, the majority of your work is with the local subsistence farmers, building protective walls around their water points and teaching them the skills they need to manage their conflict with the resident elephant populations. No matter what your task involves, the root aim is to achieve sustainable elephant conservation through education, research and development. Education is key as a tool in safeguarding the future of desert elephants. Volunteers are therefore likely to be involved in helping to support local schools by contributing efforts that range from rebuilding toilets and showers to building a network from donated computers and educating pupils on the environment, local ecosystem and the desert elephants.

Lunchtimes are usually spent at camp and are followed by a siesta, during what is always the hottest part of the day. However, there are always tasks to be busy with at camp, ranging from updating the data forms to being on camp or kitchen duty. Evenings are spent around the camp fire under the African sky, catching up with each other on the day’s events.

Elephant Patrol

Week 2 - Pack up your gear and set off on elephant patrol to track, monitor, observe and take data on these illusive majestic animals as you volunteer in Namibia!

The second part of this elephant conservation volunteering adventure will take you to enjoy the sights, sounds and way of life of being on elephant patrol. Volunteers pack a week’s worth of supplies and camping equipment in our specifically designed 4x4’s, before setting off in search of elephants. During this phase of the project, you will have a truly nomadic lifestyle, following the elephants on their journey through uninhabited wilderness areas and pure Namib Desert, and setting up the mobile base at a new project site each night.

Each day you will traverse the Namib Desert, closely following, observing and recording data on these fascinating mammals. As a result, you will become accustomed to their individual personalities, making this volunteering experience a deeply personal one. Unlike any safari or overlanding tour could ever offer, you will learn to identify the individuals within the heard and get to know each of their behaviours. You also follow the elephants on foot, sometimes for hours under the African sun (so a reasonable level of fitness is required), taking breaks on rocky outcrops as you watch the elephants relax and socialise in the shade. This is the life that few have the opportunity to experience – out in the African wilderness experiencing nature in its purest form!

As you navigate the Namib Desert when you volunteer in Namibia, you will take it in turns to fulfil your various assigned roles within the group, to ensure that your elephant conservation work runs efficiently and in-line with the project aims. Meals are the responsibility of all participants, are prepared on a rotational basis, and are cooked and eaten around an open fire. Volunteers should also be aware that whilst on elephant patrol, you are immersed in the true wilderness of the Namib Desert and therefore you sacrifice some comforts (for example, there are no toilets and washing facilities are limited).

Depending upon the direction that the desert elephants take in the evening, you will set up a mobile base camp in a suitable and safe area. You will always try to make this site as comfortable as possible, having everyone sleeping out under the stars on bedrolls and in mosquito nets, where you can take in all the sounds of the Namibian night-time atmosphere. The project staff are highly qualified and have years of experience in the field of conservation, so will assist and support you throughout your time volunteering in Namibia. Your project leader is also first-aid qualified and has years of experience in the field. In addition, Namibia has first world medical services available and a first-rate emergency service, if any volunteers ever need it.

This elephant conservation trip alternates in between the content of these two weeks, on a continual basis throughout the year. At each two week stage, volunteers have the opportunity to go back to the town of Swakopmund. This is a truly unique project, which gives its volunteers the opportunity to take part in a real adventure with likeminded people that care about the future of majestic elephants. Your funds will contribute towards the project cost, such as building materials, fuel, vehicle costs, etc. Indeed, this volunteer project would not run if it were not for the likes of you! You will learn to be one with nature and walk away from this volunteering adventure with an immense sense of satisfaction, some amazing stories to tell and a longing to return to be under the Namib Desert stars!

- Expedition Skills Required

No previous experience or foreign language skills are required to join this expedition, but team members must be 18 years of age or older and speak English. The team is made up of a variety of nationalities from all walks of life, so everyone is welcome. Volunteers should also be enthusiastic, hunger after adventure, and desire to give a personal sacrifice in order to make a difference (to, ultimately, gain great satisfaction). All volunteers must be team players who will assist each other and the staff on a daily basis, and be physically fit to cope with the demanding environment. This volunteering project is not a package holiday, it is real elephant conservation for those that care enough to get up and do something to help.

- What's been happening recently with the Volunteering?

It’s been a difficult few months on the Elephant Conservation Project, proving just how important our volunteer work is to the desert elephant population of Damaraland. Recently, a decision was made to allow the trophy-hunting of bull elephants in our region. This was of huge concern to our project team, as without an accurate or scientific consensus on elephant numbers the full consequences of such a decision could not be understood. The research from our project team indicates that the loss of even a few of the remaining breeding bull elephants would further weaken the gene pool and have a huge, detrimental affect on such a small and vulnerable population.

The project have been working hard to raise money to purchase the remaining trophy permit, and recently, 10 former volunteers from the UK, US and Canada took part in a grueling 150km trek across Damaraland, raising a fantastic amount of money for the cause.

There is still much to do, but we are now beginning to reach a consensus with key stakeholders in the area about the need to protect the desert dwelling elephants and especially the nomadic bulls as a unique population. The brilliant community work and valid research that the volunteers continue to do in the area could not be more needed or relevant at this time!

- Malaria Awareness

Travelling to long-haul destinations can be a wonderful and exciting experience. Before you go, make sure you take the right travel advice about visiting Malaria risk countries. At Yomps we are committed to stopping traveller deaths from malaria which is why we support the campaign being run by Malariahotspots.com. Also, we have an article written by a travel nurse about how to avoid mosquito bites and other insect bites (opens in a new window).

Our Partners On This Trip -

We work in partnership with established projects, courses and expeditions. The information on our website comes from our local partners and we work with them to ensure the information is as accurate as possible. However, due to the very nature of the trips themselves the exact details of what happens on a daily basis can vary.