*Namib Balloon - image courtesy of Wilderness Safaris*

Namibia – a harsh yet beautiful wilderness

You’re invited to join me on an exploration of Namibia over a series of three articles, following me on a recent road trip around this astounding country with my partner.

Let me set the scene.

Finally independent having been run by Germany, the British Empire and most latterly South Africa within the last 100 years, Namibia is tucked in the far south west of Africa on the Atlantic Coast, just above South Africa. On a map it looks tiny compared to its neighbours but it’s one and a half times the size of France! Flying between locations makes good sense time-wise, but can be expensive and you fly over so much of interest – it’s a time/cost equation; on this trip we drove.

The thing about Namibia is that whilst its neighbour Botswana is almost a pure safari destination - and what a destination - it has a relatively small number of incredible topographical features bar the likes of the Makgadikgadi Pans and the Okavango Delta. Namibia on the other hand is almost the polar opposite with its principal safari location being the saltpans of the Etosha National Park in the far north. What pulls visitors to Namibia are the vast open spaces of the Kalahari, its rugged mountain ranges and the wilderness of the Skeleton Coast. Its harshness is its beauty.

Having flown overnight via Johannesburg, we broke the journey in the capital city of Windhoek (‘windy corner’) where there are a number of good hotels but small privately owned guest houses abound and offer a more personalised service. We chose Galton House and would recommend it. I always like to head into town for the evening and our establishment of choice was Joe’s Beerhouse. Packed with locals, which is always a good sign, this eclectic watering hole offers a great range of local beers whilst its house ‘wine’ is Jaegermeister, empty bottles of which seem to adorn every nook of Joe’s! If you’re a vegan, best to give the place a miss though. Namibians love their braais.

Early the next morning, whilst Roxy slept in before a tour of Windhoek southern, I was collected by Pieter, my local travel business partner, to experience my first round of golf in Namibia.

We were heading about a half hour drive north of Windhoek to Omeya Golf Club, part of the Omeya Residential Estate, which caters for young professional couples, families, retirees – and golfers. It is very much based on the model found in many South African gated communities.

The course designer, Peter Matkovich, is well known in this part of southern Africa having designed several well-known courses such as DeZalze, Arabella and Pinnacle Point. The Par 72, 6,500 yard course displays all the usual Matkovich traits, working the holes into the existing landscape, rather than the other way round; it’s not over sculptured. The result is a course that challenges the good golfer looking for a low score but still allows the average golfer to enjoy the experience with some wide fairways to hit and areas to lay-up. And all set in the Namibian bush! I managed 30 points, which, with hired clubs, was a reasonable result.

Windhoek to Sossusvlei

Our adventure started the next morning on a 12-day, 5 location, 1,000 mile journey to some of the most amazing locations you will ever visit. Our first stop was in Sossusvlei, a 6-hour drive south west of Windhoek. The tarred roads in Namibia are generally well maintained, there are just not many of them given the size of the country. Thereafter you’re on shale roads and average speeds reduce accordingly, allow for 40 mph tops. Sossusvlei is part of the Namib Desert, the oldest in the world and to my mind the most beautiful, being fringed by the Atlantic Ocean and topped with incredibly clear blue skies. It’s worth spending at least two nights in this region, as there’s plenty to see and do. We attempted to climb Dune 45, otherwise known as Big Daddy, but its height at over 1,000 feet and the 35C heat beat us and we had to be content at looking over the dried salt pan of Deadvlei and wondering whether our camera was good enough to capture the pure white of the pan with its petrified trees, contrasted by the deep golden hues of the dunes and that intense blue sky.

*Deadvlei - image courtesy of Wilderness Safaris*

We stayed at Little Kulala, a Wilderness Safaris’ lodge sat on the edge of the great dune belt with its own private entrance to the reserve, staying in a private ‘kulala’, consisting of huge en-suite accommodation, a pool and ‘star beds’ on the roof, which just had to be tried. And what stars – you can almost touch the Milky Way.

The next morning we quad-biked to the launch site for our dawn balloon flight and watched in fascination as the multi coloured canopy was inflated against the backdrop of the first light of the day, piping hot coffee in hand. Within half an hour we were floating over our ‘kulala’ – we really should have made the star bed – and towards the seemingly endless belt of dunes which stretch some 200 miles to the coast. The region has a limited amount of fauna but we passed over ostriches, gemboks and a pair of black-backed jackals – all blissfully unaware that we were there. Our pilot was top class and dropped with balloon with inch perfect precision onto its trailer. Safely down a glass or two of South African ‘bubbly’ and a tasty brunch awaited before we returned to camp.

We relaxed by the pool for the rest of the day, breaking our travails for lunch and to visit the wine cellar to choose some wine for dinner................

Sossusvlei to Swakopmund

Today’s challenge was to cross the Namib-Naukluft National Park, which forms part of the Kalahari Desert, to the coastal town of Swakopmund. Taking a packed lunch and plenty of water we set out about 10:00, topping up with fuel at a service station aptly called Solitaire. This oasis is littered with the sun-bleached bodies of old American cars, trucks and tractors and is famed (well in Namibia) for its Apple Strudel. It’s also a great place to have the tyres on the car (ours was a Toyota Fortuner SUV) and its fluid levels checked. Shortly after leaving Solitaire, our SatNav advised us to turn left at the next junction; nothing unusual in that. But then it calmly, almost casually, announced that we should take the third exit at next roundabout ................in 230 kms!

I hope you’ll join us as we reach the marine rich Atlantic Coast and head north up the Skeleton Coast and Damaraland, home to the desert adapted Elephant.

Namibia – a harsh yet beautiful wilderness

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Namibia - part 2 - a harsh yet beautiful wilderness