10 reasons to visit Namibia now it’s off the red list
Southern African countries are back on the menu – here’s why you should prioritise Namibia’s phenomenal landscapes, writes Melissa Twigg
Namibia’s cinematic landscapes are really all you need. In a country as absurdly beautiful as this one, you can pitch a tent on the roof of your jeep and still wake up entranced. So it feels almost gluttonous to discover that Namibia is also home to some of the best lodges in the continent – beautifully decorated and creatively designed, they’re perched on remote clifftops or next to ochre-coloured sand dunes. Unless you can afford the internal flights, exploring the country from behind a 4x4 is a good option, and long days spent looking at the Martian-like rock formations on the horizon are no hardship. Here are the top 10 most spectacular sights – in no particular order.
Sossusvlei
Big Daddy is the Eiffel Tower of Namibia. This vast, burnt-orange sand dune plunges into petrified white earth dotted with acacia-tree carcasses – and standing on it feels as if you’ve been dropped into a boiling hot surrealist painting. Found in the Sossusvlei National Park, Big Daddy is one of hundreds of sand dunes that litter the landscape. The light is as beautiful at sunrise, when the air is still cool and the sand looks almost mauve, as it is at night when the star-spangled sky is mesmerising – with no light pollution or air traffic, Sossusvlei is one of the best places on earth to see the Milky Way.
At Little Kulala, comfortable beds with hot water bottles are set up on the roof of your suite each night, although the planetarium above your head is distracting enough to create bouts of mild insomnia. Each bedroom has a deck that looks out towards a sea of sandy nothingness, and guides can fill your day with quad-biking, dune surfing and hot air balloon rides. Or they can leave you sitting quietly by the pool, watching the dusty mountains slowly change colour.
Damaraland
Dramatically beautiful and unrelentingly photogenic, Damaraland bridges the gap between the emerald bushveld of Etosha and arid desert to the south. Unlike Sossusvlei, there is life in this part of Namibia: in particular, breeding herds of desert elephant that slowly trudge across the dry river beds as they continue their search for water.
At the delightful Desert Rhino Camp, you can escape the confines of a jeep and walk on the red earth until you find one of the black rhino that live in the area. The specially trained guides understand the habits of these wild animals and standing 20 feet away from one feels like an enormous privilege – particularly given the devastation poaching has wrought on the population. But more often than not, there are no animals, just an endless of expanse of hot, dry terrain that is strangely beautiful in its vast emptiness.
Swakopmund
Of all the unexpected things to find in Africa, a patriotic German community on the edge of the Namib desert must rank pretty high on what is surely a very long list. Swakopmund is a scenic, whitewashed town on the treacherous Atlantic coastline (don’t plan on swimming anywhere other than a pool here) and walking around it not only feels like you are stepping back in time, but also like you are leaping over 5,000 miles of African earth to get your feet firmly on European soil. Amid all the wild beauty, seal colonies and extraordinary bird life, the locals remain as stubbornly rooted to their past as they were a century and a half ago. Colonial-era maps of Africa and sepia-tinted photographs of Teutonic generals adorn restaurant walls, and bratwurst is always on the menu.
Birders will love the lagoon at nearby Walvis Bay. In summer, about 50,000 flamingos share the salt pans with hundreds of thousands of migrants. Stay at the Hansa Hotel for lovely ocean views and hearty breakfasts.
Kolmanskop
Done with the Anglo-Saxon memorabilia? Drive south to Kolmanskop, the eerie ghost town where dilapidated houses are flooded with rolling sand banks. A hundred years ago, Kolmanskop was a town of prospective millionaires, where German inhabitants could pluck diamonds off the desert floor. But this gluttony couldn’t last. Intensive mining depleted the area by the 1930s, and when richer diamond fields were found to the south, the town was abandoned. For the last 90 years, the desert has rolled in and packed the cottages with golden sand – turning the town into a monument to a lost world.
The closest hotel is the brightly coloured Luderitz Nest Hotel – which is clean, comfortable and right on the sea.
Red Sands
In this magical part of southern Namibia, the sky turns scarlet each evening from the rising dust – as if the Northern Lights have changed colour and moved thousands of miles south. The sand-dunes transform throughout the day, from deep pink to letter-box red to eerie maroon as the sun rises and sets on them. There are thousands of birds in the border area with South Africa, as well as bush trails and hikes in this little-visited part of the country.
The sky turns scarlet each evening from the rising dust – as if the Northern Lights have changed colour and moved thousands of miles south
The Red Sands Country Lodge is clean and comfortable, made up of 20 traditional rondavels – aka African-style round huts.
Fish River Canyon
Known by locals as Namibia’s best-kept secret, this vast, otherworldly canyon is almost as spectacular as its American cousin, but with barely a human being in sight. At 550m deep, 27km wide and 160km long, it is Africa’s longest canyon and the second largest in the world – after you-know-what. Famous for its hiking route, which takes in startlingly dramatic scenery and twisted rock formations, it is mostly visited in the winter months (May to September), as even the hardiest of hikers blanche at completing an intense 85km trail in 40C heat.
Stay in one of the nearby camping sites and rise at dawn before the heat of descends. If you’re lucky you may get a glimpse of Namibia’s wild horses, as well as zebras, impala and even the occasional leopard. Beat that Grand Canyon.
Hoanib
Hoanib Skeleton Coast is Wilderness Safaris’ most popular Namibian camp thanks to its almost otherworldly setting. Located in a broad valley where two tributaries of the dry Hoanib River meet, it straddles the western Palmwag area and the iconic Skeleton Coast National Park, and is famous for its harsh, rocky terrain, purple mountains and drifting orange sand dunes.
At first the landscape seems desperately arid but if you look closely you can see tiny shoots of green amid the red rocks. On a full-day game drive out to the Skeleton Coast, muddy riverbeds filled with klipspringers and duikers give way to clusters of green grass and patches of terrain where jackals skulk along the orange earth, until finally the smell of the sea and the thousands of seal colonies hits your nose.
Himbaland
In the middle of one of the driest and most inhospitable places on earth, an emerald green jungle appears, snaking its way through the parched orange landscape. On either side of the Kunene River – the heavy expanse of brown water that divides Angola from Namibia – the land becomes heady with life.
Wilderness Safaris’ extraordinary Serra Cafema camp is set in this brief burst of greenery and is the only lodge along this entire stretch of desert (although you can pitch a tent anywhere you feel like stopping). Birds of paradise flutter down to the water, crocodiles bask on the shore and fish eagles soar overhead. The Himba people – who live in small villages in the area and cover their bodies in distinctive ochre-coloured paint – believe the fairy circles that dot the earth are signs left by their ancestors. Ancestral magic or not, it is impossible not to feel drunk on your surroundings here.
Twyfelfontein
In Namibia, waking up each morning means being confronted with an array of shimmering natural artwork. But to the west of the Kunene River is one of Africa’s most important collections of actual prehistoric art. Near a trickling spring – where early man would have once gathered to collect water in an otherwise arid patch of land – are a series of caves covered in extraordinary paintings. Now a Unesco World Heritage Site, these jagged rock formations are filled with drawings of impala, zebras, giraffes and lions – and early man, holding his tools.
Cool off afterwards at the comfortable Twyfelfontein Country Lodge, with its long pool, hearty Afrikaans meals and afternoon game drives to look for desert elephants.
Etosha
After the sinuous curves of the sand dunes down south, Etosha feels like another world. Elsewhere in the country, seeing wildlife feels like an unexpected gift, but here there are lions, giraffes, hyenas, leopards and rhino galore. Etosha National Park is built around a pan – a ghostly remnant of a lake that was once as big as Wales but now attracts animals to the fertile soil. The southern hemisphere winter is best for spotting wildlife, although even in the sweltering heat of Christmas you’ll clog up your camera with pictures of the “big five” animals.
Pitch a tent inside the park at Namutoni, an old desert fort from the colonial era, or stay in the delightfully named, utterly unpronounceable Ondundozonanandana mountains at Ongava Lodge. Here, camps are set into the lush forest and Meghan and Harry are rumoured to have been spotted. If it’s good enough for them…
Travel essentials
Melissa Twigg travelled with Rainbow Tours (020 7666 1260) which offers an eight-night holiday combining wilderness camps such as Little Kulala, Damaraland Camp and Ongava Lodge from £6,435 per person. The price is based on two sharing and includes international and inter-camp flights, transfers, all meals and all activities.
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