Namibia

Namibia is a land of vast distances with ever-changing landscapes: wide open spaces, gigantic sand dunes, deep canyons, profuse wildlife. Namibia covers an area of 824 292 km2, with a population of approximately 1.800.000 people, only 2.1 person per square kilometre. Extending almost 2 000 kilometres along the Atlantic seaboard is the Namib, the world’s oldest and perhaps most fascinating desert, a strange, hushed, vacant, hauntingly beautiful wasteland of shifting dunes.

South we find the Fish River Canyon, the largest in Africa as well as Ais-Ais water springs. To the east is the high central plateau and the charming city of Windhoek, whose architecture, like that of many of the smaller Namibian towns echoes its German past.

To the north is a more fertile and populous region, notable for the great alluvial plain created by the Okavango and other watercourses that flow down from Angola to feed the vast, shallow depression known as the Etosha Pan, focus of one of the continent’s most impressive game parks.  

THE FISH RIVER CANYON

The Fish River Canyon is a spectacular natural formation, which extends for up to 161 kilometres and is 27 kilometres wide and with a maximum drop of 550 metres. It is second in size to the Grand Canyon in America.

It is a landscape of startling abruptness and aridness. The vistas are breathtaking, especially at sunrise and sunset. The Fish River Canyon offers several hiking trails.

Several springs occurred on the floor of the canyon, the most notable being Ai-Ais, a Nama name meaning very hot.

The Ai-Ais, therapeutic mineral springs, is an oasis of green palms and riverbed reeds. It lies in a depression at the bottom of the Fish River Canyon. Here the hot spring has been disciplined into a sinuous pool.

The healing waters of the spring bubble to the surface at 60C. The water is piped into indoor pools, Jacuzzis and an open swimming pool.

LUDERITZ

Trapped between the desiccating sands of the Namib and the icy waters of the Benguela current, lies Luderitz a charming old town with a lovely little harbour, rich in history and full of character.

The essence of Luderitz is best discovered walking the narrow up-and-down streets of this quaint town where double-storey colonial houses huddle in their past glory.

Kolmanskop, situated only 10km south east of Luderitz, is known as the ghost town. This village was built for the staff of a nearby diamond mine after the discovery of a diamond in 1908. Today its old buildings are being progressively buried under sand dunes, a small museum tells the story of the town

SOSSUSVLEI

This great dune field lies on the Tsauchab and Tsondab Rivers. Both rivers end by forming flat white pans dotted with green trees, surrounded by spectacular dunes creating islands of life within a sea of sand, this is classic desert scenery.

This is a desert as the romantics picture it - seas of sand and sweeping dunes (among the world's highest, up to 425 metres high). Depending on the time of day, these dunes take on many different hues ranging from ivory white and golden orange to a deep maroon at first and last light. 
This show of changing colours and the lonely Oryx silhouette against the red dunes is the image one cannot ever forget.

These dunes can only be reached by 4x4 vehicles. Accommodation is provided in lodges and small hotels in the Sesriem area, there is also camping facilities close to Soussvlei.

WINDHOEK

Windhoek, the capital of Namibia lies some 1 680 metres above sea-level in semi-arid country 650 kilometres from the Atlantic seaboard - that is to say, almost at the country's geographical epicentre. This town spreads out in a wide valley between bush-covered hills. Picturesque German buildings give it a light airy European feel. There are some tall modern offices around, though none that really class as skyscrapers. The pace of life here is pleasantly slow.

Windhoek is the country's best destination for money matters or letters to be sent to, and is generally by far the biggest centre at which to get anything you need. It is also one of the few places where you are guaranteed to meet other travellers.

ATTRACTIONS:

• Daan Viljoen Game Park - A small game park, about 20km east of the city, well provided in terms of facilities, ideal for a camping holiday.

• Namibia Crafts Centre - The bright walls of the Namibia Crafts Centre conceal exuberant displays of handwork from across the continent.

• Alte Feste - This old fort with its white castle turrets, still stands in sombre elegance as today's State Museum.

• Tintenpalast - Its perfect gardens dotted with tall palms, Tintenpalast is the gracious and fitting home of the Namibian parliament.

• Transnamib Railway Museum - One hundred years of Namibian rail history are recorded in Windhoek's elegant old railway-station building.

• Gross-Barmen Hot Springs - is a well-known spa and government rest camp near Okahandja. 

• Go caving - Cave interiors are magic places, Arnum Cave - About 130 km east of Windhoek, near Gobabis, is the biggest cave known to Namibia, and the only one open to the public.

WALVIS BAY & SWAKOPMUND

Walvis Bay is the region's principal port and is situated within a 1 140 km enclave. It lies on the edge of the Namib Desert just north of the sporadically flowing Kuiseb River.

The Bay itself is wide and deep and an ornithologists paradise as it is famed for its water birds. Nearly 80 different species, among them, Pelicans, Damara Terns and migrant Arctic Terns are common there, and at times up to 20 000 Flamingos can be seen feeding in the shallow waters.

The harbour at Walvis Bay bulges and bustles with fishing trawlers, fish-processing factories and the screech of scavenging gulls. The aroma of wet fish hangs heavy in the air and the harbour is a major fishing port.

Swakopmund is only 60km North from Walvis Bay, immaculate palm-lined streets, manicured gardens and gracious colonial buildings make it a beautiful town. There are several hotels and guest houses, very good restaurants and even a casino.

ATTRACTIONS:

• Sandwich Harbour - South of Walvis Bay, the sight of pink flamingos flying gracefully above the pale apricot-coloured sands is a delight to any photographer.

• The town of Swakopmund also offers many adventurous activities including skydiving, quad biking and sand boarding; also the traditional informative day tours around the city centre, the dunes and the semi-arid dessert. 

• Fishing, surfing and sea kayaking are also offered in the area.

ETOSHA PAN

Translated as the "Place of Mirages", a piece of imagery that captures the essence of the pan. Etosha is apparently an endless pan of silvery-white sand, upon which dust devils play and mirages blur the Horizon. The pan stretches 130km from east to west, and it runs 72km of flat, shining white sand or, for just a few months every summer if the rains have been good, of shallow, shining water. Then the white plains turn green, almost overnight. Grass seems almost the only ground cover in many parts of the Etosha, but there is a large variety of trees and shrubs too.

Etosha is home to about 1 500 elephant, as well as rhino, lion, leopard, cheetah, 7000 zebra, 2 600 wildebeest, 20 000 springbok, kudu, hartebeest, eland, the unusual black impala the endearing Damara dik-dik (one of the smallest of the antelope) and other buck species. This magnificent array of wildlife is best seen at the waterholes, most of which are seen in the park's eastern region.

ATTRACTIONS:

• Okaukuejo is Etosha's best-known camp; it is celebrated for its floodlit waterhole, where game watching takes place round the clock from the benches of it "grandstand".

• Namutoni camp is an original German fort, which was destroyed in a battle with Ovambo. It is located close to the park's eastern Von Lindequist gate. It is in a good game area with many productive waterholes nearby. The camp is close to Fischer's Pan, so bird watching is particularly rewarding, especially during the wet season when great numbers of flamingo are present.

• Halali is located midway between Okaukuejo and Namutoni rest camps and is an excellent base for visiting nearby game-rich plains during the dry season. A walking trail on the rocky path is good for a leg stretch as well as an opportunity to discover unusual plants. The placement of the camp waterhole affords exceptionally close-up viewing from above as animals come to drink.

THE SKELETON COAST

The Skeleton Coast Park is a 600-kilometre band of sand and gravel, dyke and rocky ravine fringed by perhaps the world's most forbidding shoreline. Nevertheless, a wide variety of animals and plants survive this unforgiving land. The coast is but a thin desolate line between the pounding ocean and the stark desert interior. In spite of its ghastly associations with death, however, the Skeleton Coast is a place of unusual beauty, changing moods and wonderful colours.

Divided into the southern park section and northern tourism concession area, the Skeleton Coast has sprawling lichen-covered plains, secret riverbeds where elephants dig to drink, and colossal shifting dunes.

ATTRACTIONS:

• Terrace Bay and Tora Bay - Here one can fish for kabeljou, galjoen and steenbras, while ghost crabs scurry past your tackle box.

• Bird-watching - Birdlife along the skeleton coast is abundant and varied. Among others, long lines of Cape cormorants are a common sight streaming over the sea, and the black-and-white Cape gannet is commonly observed diving headlong into the water.

• Horse trails along the skeleton coast are also offered.