Detailed route map

Pictures
Route
1 Arriving in Windhoek
2 Central Windhoek
3 Sorting a 4x4
4 Camping again
5 Waterberg
6 On to Etosha
7 Rest day
8 Animals galore
9 Okaukuejo
10 On to Opuwo
11 Himba village
12 Fort Sesfontein
13 Cave paintings
14 Terrace Bay
15 Skeleton Coast
16 Swakopmund
17 Kristall Galerie
18 Welwitschia and fish
19 On to Naukluft
20 Dead vlei
21 To Luderitz
22 Kolmanskop
23 Horses and quivers
24 Back to Windhoek
25 Windhoek

Namibia

Route

We flew in from Johannesburg, after long flights from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong to Johannesburg and finally on to our first African destination. After Canada we thought we had "done" big open spaces and anywhere else would comparatively "small". Well, we were wrong! We spent a few days in Windhoek, the small, quiet, low-key capital, Namibia's "bright lights" amid a vast open empty country. To get around the country we hired a 4x4 camper van, for a repeat, in a way, of our Morty experience in Canada, except this time we simply had a pick-up with a canopy on the back and a fold-up tent on the roof.

We first headed north towards the Etosha national park, making overnight stops at Okahandja, not too far from Windhoek so we had a chance to try out the equipment, and the next one at Waterberg, which reminded us of Conan Doyle's Lost World (which, funnily enough, we had both just finished reading), with its mysterious plateau. We carried on heading north, passing through a few one-street towns and entered Etosha from the eastern side at Namutoni. We spent the next couple of days spotting lots and lots of animals and birds within the flat expanses of Etosha and exited again from the southern gate at Okaukuejo. Next we headed into Kaokoland, home of the colourful Himbas. If we had more time we would have carried on beyond Opuwo, and also into Owamboland, north of Etosha, or maybe taken a slightly different route. This stretch is really the heartland of Namibia's indigenous population (except for the nomadic San people who live in the harsh southern parts).

With stops along the way at Sesfontein (a small oasis in Damaraland) and Twyfelfontein (ancient rock art) we crossed a spectacularly harsh bit of country and reached the Skeleton Coast, a country that looked "as if someone had emptied an ashtray over it" is how Ness put it. Terrace Bay had a real "end of the world" feeling, except for the couple of South African surf-anglers who made it this far. We headed south along the coast, to Swakopmund, the most German town we had come across. Next we drove further south to the Naukluft mountains and then to Sesriem, a camp from where you could access the photogenic red dune fields of the Namid Desert.

The plan had been to return to Windhoek from here, but with a few days in hand we though we would head further afield and took a long drive to Luderitz, a tiny windy town on the south coast, on the edge of the Restricted Area One (diamond territory, Consolidated Diamond Mines). Then we started the long drive back to Windhoek, through some stunning wide open spaces (bigger than anything we have seen, either here or in Canada), via Keetmanshoop and north to Mariental, where we spent a night at the small reserve at Hardap Dam, and then back to Windhoek to return the camper van and get ready to fly to South Africa.

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