Wetu sample

Windhoek, which is the capital and largest city of Namibia is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around 1,700m (5,600 ft) above sea level and is almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. Your guide will familiarize you regarding the area and provide all crucial information.

Windhoek has developed at the site of a permanent hot spring known to the indigenous pastoral communities. It developed rapidly after Jonker Afrikaner, Captain of the Orlam tribe, settled here in 1840 and built a stone church for his community.

The city's German origins are quite pronounced in beautiful old German colonial buildings throughout the city. Swakopmund is like a German North Sea town with an African flair. The first European explorers of the area, Dutchmen Sebastian van Reenen and Pieter Pienaar described the area in 1793 as one with plush vegetation, elephants and rhinos. Nowadays however, the area can be described as ocean on one side and desert on the other, with some shrubs as the only natural vegetation. Close to a century after the Dutch exploration, the area was a colony of the German Empire, and was chosen as a second port for German Southwest Africa after Luderitz.

The Living Desert Tour pays attention to and takes special care not to cause any damage to the dune ecosystem. During the tour you’ll discuss topics such as endemic fauna and flora, conservation and geology. Plenty of time will be made available for frequent stops to take photos of the dunes and the surrounding environment.

You’ll then continuously stop to look for animal tracks on the dunes (locally known as 'reading the bushman newspaper'), to determine which creatures were active the previous night. Wherever possible, you will try to catch some of these amazing, specially adapted, dune animals, in order to photograph and learn more about them.

The local guides will take great care to share their wealth of knowledge on the desert and the unique adaptations that the animals and plants use to survive in this harsh, sensitive ecosystem, which depends on the life-giving fog that rolls in daily.

Special attention is given to keep the desert in pristine condition, and much care and respect is exercised while handling the delicate desert animals.

Some of the amazing endemic species that can be found on this tour include the web-footed Namib dune gecko, shovel-snouted lizards, snakes, chameleons, skinks, scorpions and a variety of beetles and insects, including numerous plants that survive in this barren habitat.