Epic Namibia

Through the ages explorers have inspired mankind with accounts of their travels. Those with an adventurous spirit who read about these journeys were enthralled and tempted to travel and experience far-off places for themselves. But alas, that was an impossible quest except for a fortunate few.

These days travel writers inspire their readers with words and with photographs of wondrous places. With the click of a button the most amazing images of practically any secret place in the world can be discovered by almost everyone without lifting as much as a finger. In today’s world exploring has become part of our lives as we travel on our smart phones. It allows us to dream and get lost in the reality of someone else’s experience.

The pandemic of the past two years has proven, however, that all the beautiful descriptions with the perfect set of adjectives and the most incredible images cannot replace the sense of place. The sense of sounds and smells and that unfathomable sense of wellbeing when you come to a place that you have dreamt of and the reality lives up to your expectations.

Namibia is such a place.

It is a challenge to find the right words to describe our land, even for those of us who are fortunate to live here and be exposed to the many facets of all seasons and temperaments. The extremes of hot and dry, cold and stormy, misty, windy, soft and soothing, quiet and dreamy. The “right” words sound pretentious. Trying to describe the ruggedness that becomes smooth in the last light of the setting sun or a gemsbok charging down the slip face of a dune in a cloud of red dust can hardly convey the magic of that moment. Only once you have seen the beauty with your own eyes will words reflect the true nuances.

Maybe poets will convey the spirit of this country of endless horizons more effectively than writers. However, the ultimate pleasure is to experience the liberating feeling of a modern-day explorer. With the help of all the little comforts such as electronic maps and mobile phones, a GPS, a fourwheel drive vehicle with a fridge and a rooftop tent and, of course, fuel on most routes and cell phone coverage nearly everywhere – this is possible in Namibia.

Why not escape the confines and stressful life of a big city for a few weeks of freedom? Discover the natural beauty and the adventures of a sparsely populated country on a different continent.

All it takes is to board a plane, put your luggage in the back of a four-wheel drive vehicle at the airport. Note the instructions of how to open the rooftop tent and change a tyre. Then stock the camping fridge and take to the open road leading out of the capital in any direction. Better still, take a gravel road and leave “civilization” behind within less than an hour.

Tarred roads are convenient, but do not always offer the best setting for that liberating feeling.

Namibia is a go-slow destination. That is, if you want to explore and not just tick off a list. The journey is truly the destination. Even if you plan to visit at least the obvious highlights from the first chapter in your travel guide it will take you deep into all four corners and beyond.

For that you need time. Not only to marvel at the vistas, but also to go closer and notice the detail and textures of stone and rock, trees and the tiniest flowers. A secret quality of Namibia is the light. Not only for photographers. Driving through a landscape just after sunrise is much more satisfying than having a full breakfast. Be on the road before sunrise. Be settled wherever you go well before sunset to enjoy the golden hour before and after. Dinner should be by candlelight or around an open fire anyway.

If I had only three weeks and one opportunity in a lifetime to visit Namibia, where would I go? That is the most difficult decision especially for someone like me who loves detours and digression.

If you want to follow in my footsteps I don’t promise you the Big Five or the top ten highlights but you will have seen Namibia’s ruggedness, the naturalness, the soul of the land and you will feel liberated whether you fly over it or drive through it.

Zambezi Region

I will start in the far northeast which is part of Namibia only because of the crazy way in which the colonial powers cut up the continent. That decision worked out well for Namibia. As a result, the water-rich Zambezi Region with its rivers, lush vegetation, enormous trees, great birding and fishing adds a wonderful dimension to the rest of the country’s dramatic landscapes. Zambezi also provides a perfect introduction to Namibia’s community involvement in tourism and conservation.

The 2-hour flight with FlyNamibia from Eros Airport in Windhoek takes us to Katima Mulilo where the 4x4 is ready and the adventure begins. Our flight will land early in the morning. No time to waste. We may catch the Carmine Bee-eaters’ return to nest in the riverbanks, or hundreds of elephants crossing the river from Angola to Namibia on their way to Botswana. Buffalo congregate on the flood plains and disappear into the woodland. Hippos move in and out of the river and Fish Eagles keep watch on tall trees. And in the hazy dust, as the sun sinks lower, a young man herds his cattle to a kraal. The locals get on with their lives while the animals follow ancient routes to water and grazing, unperturbed by borders and people. Believe me when I say that we can stay here for three weeks and not be bored. We haven’t even started on the flowers and the different natural occurrences in different seasons.

Zambezi Region

A little detour on our way west to see what the flat land of the Aawambo people has to offer with its tall Makalani Palm trees and traditional villages dotting the landscape. People, domestic animals and human activity. But again, there is no time to discover more because the days are ticking by.

We exit through the King Nehale Gate to a peaceful paradise and the rule of wild animals. Etosha. White dust, thorn trees and a grey blue sky. Noah’s Arc has just opened before our eyes. Gemsbok, springbok, blue wildebeest, zebra, kudu, elephant, black-faced impala, jackal, hyena, birds of prey, flamingos, little ones, brown ones – too many birds to name. Giraffes eat yellow blossoms off the grey thorn trees. Black rhinos drink at the waterhole in the dark sharing the space with elephant herds. Lions roar at night and in the day sometimes rest next to the road for all to see. Why do we have to leave so soon?

Etosha National Park

Westwards. Our destination is the Brandberg where ancient peoples left evidence of their presence on rocks, and where the rising sun still paints the mountain pink every morning. Along the Ugab’s dry riverbed and its open-air cathedral of vertical rock faces we go. Northwards to meet desert elephants in the shade of Ana trees in the Huab River valley. Then turn south past villages where people live hard lives with wildlife which often destroys their meagre livelihoods. Take note that there are no fences. No barriers. Freedom to roam freely for man and beast. Look out for the otherworldly forms of trees, plants and shrubs on sand and rocky mountains.

There is a whole world to be discovered still but we have to turn back south again towards the ocean and the Skeleton Coast, famous for shipwrecks and hardships. The cool southwesterly wind tells the opposite to a traveller exiting heat and dust. Flat gravel plains and endless beaches soothe the soul. We pass the place where Portuguese seafarers planted their stone cross and thousands of seals congregate now. Inland again to scale Spitzkoppe and watch the full moon rise. From now on the nights get darker and the stars seem brighter as the moon rises one hour later every night.

Spitzkoppe

Swakopmund on the coast is halfway between north and south and it is also the middle of this journey. A breather to stock up, cool down, stroll through shops and restaurants and enjoy the German colonial style architecture. If you are used to sand deserts, you may think that the Namib is the same as what you know about, but it isn’t. Ours is a living desert. Take a tour into the dunes with an expert guide if you need convincing.

This holiday town offers a myriad of fun things to do. But on this epic journey there will be no time for frivolities like skydiving and sandboarding, camel rides or ski-boat fishing. An exception may be a scenic flight along the Skeleton Coast all the way north to the Kunene River to enjoy a bird’s eye view of where we passed through those previous few days. Perhaps the only opportunity to see the Epupa Falls and villages of the nomadic Himba people who still adhere to their traditional lifestyles.

We continue from Swakop to Walvis Bay on a road wedged between the dunes and the sea. Two of only four towns along a coastline of almost two thousand kilometres. With the exception of these towns the entire coast is national park or conservation areas. No wonder that Namibia can boast to have 46 percent of its land protected in some form of conservation management.

Day trips to one of the famous Ramsar Sites – Sandwich Harbour – are among the options in Walvis Bay. The drive through towering dunes and along deserted beaches is a treat, as is the idea of thousands upon thousands of birds migrating there to breed. Not to mention the fish.

But there is no time for a detour.

Along the gravel plains of the desert, covered in parts with yellow grass during good rain cycles, we travel past turnoffs to Mirabib, Vogelfederberg and Gemsbokwater. But no stopping to look at these archaeological sites or watch the moon rise late at night, listen to the barking geckos and lie on our backs to gaze at the milky way in the darkest sky in the world. Instead, through the Gramadoelas, the undulating landscape on either side of the Kuiseb River, and then down to cross the dry riverbed en route to Sossusvlei and Deadvlei and the Sesriem Canyon. Where the ephemeral rivers disappear in the dunes, lies the World Heritage Site called the Namib Sand Sea. The only way to fully appreciate the magnificence of this site, is by taking a scenic flight.

The best we can do on foot is to walk the few kilometres into Deadvlei and up the closest, highest dune for the world famous views of which millions of selfies have been sent.

The deep south is calling and with it the world’s biggest private nature reserve, NamibRand, where 30 years ago a visionary had a dream to preserve nature for future generations. For many of us the most beautiful road in Namibia is the C26. The landscape is breath-taking in all directions, even more so in the soft light of early morning or late afternoon. So we time our departure well. Where the C26 meets the B4 we turn towards the coast again to the place where the first diamond was discovered more than a century ago. Lüderitz is a quaint little village. The ghost town Kolmanskop a photographer’s dream and the history of the rush and ruin of diamonds an interesting and unexpected story for explorers. It will certainly spruce up your diary. But best of all: we can now enter the Sperrgebiet, a vast area previously off limits for anybody but the company which mines for diamonds. That is another story for dinner with crayfish and oysters while looking out on the aquamarine water of the deepest bay on Namibia’s coast. We cannot miss a trip to Bogenfels and the little mining villages almost covered in desert sand. In a few years our journey will definitely include a few extra days in Tsau //Khaeb National Park to experience an untouched piece of desert.

To travel from Lüderitz to our southern border, the Orange River, we may have to wait a few years. There is no direct road. In the meantime we turn inland and eastward to another landmark – the Fish River Canyon. We have the option to stay on the western bank or drive around the canyon and stay east. Or do both. One thing that is not included in a three-week itinerary is the 90- km hike through the canyon to the hot springs at Ai-Ais. Athletes “do” the Fish for all kind of reasons, but to be that close to nature combined with a certain level of danger is exhilarating.

There are many charming places to stay along the way, each offering a range of activities and stories: a ‘forest’ of quiver trees among rocks, a large collection of lithops (succulents resembling stones) or a walk along the edge of the canyon. We are pressed for time now, because going slow inevitably means days lost along the way. And we don’t want to rush back to our starting point taking the way of least resistance, i.e. straight on the tarred B1. There is more to see en route north to Windhoek than speeding past Brukkaros, although if we had another two days I would have liked to camp there with you and walk to the rim of the crater. Maybe see the end of the rainbow as I did, which confirmed that the pot of gold is not there.

So back on the gravel to Helmeringhausen, towards the Naukluft. Again I would love to take you on a hike to see the interesting trees and rock formations, but we have no days left. You will have to believe me when I point out the tufa called Blasskrans because it looks like the white mark on the head of a horse, or the moringa trees with their white stems, the gold of kobas trees or corkwoods.

Over Remhoogte Pass on the last stretch, but with a quick detour from Nauchas to Spreetshoogte for one last view across the endless expanse and the layers of mountains to watch the sun sink reluctantly behind the horizon.

Epic Namibia.

Rièth van Schalkwyk