Namibia is a unique and fascinating country. Attractions in Namibia range from prime wildlife safaris to fascinating desert landscapes, diverse culture and a whole lot of unpopulated places and wide open spaces in between.
The highlights of Namibia have taken millennia to reach their present state. Nowhere is the age of the earth more evident than in the ancient landscape of the world's oldest desert - The Namib Desert and of course the famous Sossusvlei. In Namibia, the layers of time are clearly marked and preserved: a dinosaur's footprints fossilised in rock; an ancient volcano worn by wind to its core; a 20,000-year-old meteorite; rock paintings over 26,000 years old; a river canyon 300 million years in the making. It took 5 million years for the dunes in the Great Sand Sea to get to their present state and they are considered young. Their petrified counterparts are over 20 million years old.
Despite its parched reputation, Namibia is one of the best wildlife safari destinations in Africa. Etosha National Park is a phenomenon unto itself. With a vast saline desert as its eye it is surrounded by tear ducts of natural springs that support an astonishing array of indigenous species. The Waterberg Plateau, Damaraland, Kalahari and Caprivi add fascinating and widely contrasting wildlife dimensions to complete the game viewing experience.
The people who inhabit this land, few though they may be, are no less captivating than their surrounds. San hunter-gatherers continue their ancient traditions in the area known as Bushmanland ; the Himba are nomadic herdsman with proud traditions who live in the remote and rugged Kaokoland and along the Kunene River. Coastal towns bear witness to the changing fortunes of an inhospitable shoreline. The ghost of a diamond-rush era remains in Luderitz; Swakopmund thrives despite its precarious location and shipwrecks along the Skeleton Coast reveal the source of its grisly name.
Surrounded by the stubble-covered Auas Mountains and the endless Khomas Hochland, Windhoek lies in a long valley fed by ancient hot springs in the central highlands. Namibia’s capital and bustling city. More often than not, the start or end place of your Namibia safari.
In Windhoek there are many interesting historical buildings, museums, galleries and craft shops. The city has several good restaurants and modern shops and services making it an excellent base camp from which to launch your Namibian adventure.
Star dunes with up to five crests rise 300m into the air and rank among the biggest in the world; the dune valleys are marked by vast clay pans where the Tsauchab River gave up its fight to reach the sea more than 60,000 years ago.
Besides the dunes and pans of Sossusvlei and Sesriem Canyon, a sideshow of activities and sights has developed around the region and there are plenty of game lodges that provide additional desert-adapted activities. Plants and birds are the dominant life form in this dessicated realm and they support a tiny world of mammals, reptiles and insects that, in the absence of coastal fog, seldom wander far from the rivercourse and its pans.
Surrounded by the ancient Namib Desert and the inhospitable - but bounteous - Atlantic Ocean, Swakopmund is alive with activity and has a lot on offer for the adventure-seeker: quad-biking, sand-boarding, horse-riding, skydiving and more.
Swakopmund has many interesting German-influenced buildings from the early 1900s in a variety of styles and, for its size, Swakopmund has an astonishing array of restaurants that serve mainly seafood, steak and many German staples.
Walvis Bay is an industrial port which lies along the Atlantic Ocean, off Namibia's Skeleton Coast. The large bay and surrounding sand dunes help make Walvis Bay a tourist mecca with loads of activities on offer to explore it.
- Explore the Skeleton Coast where the dunes meet the sea at Sandwich Harbour
- Go on a dolphin boat cruise in the harbour. Enjoy champagne and oysters
- Kayak among the seals at Pelican Point
- Visit and climb the mighty Dune 7
- Visit the RAMSAR wetland birding site and the Walvis Bay Lagoon. Thousands of flamingos from October to April
- Explore the neighbouring town of Swakopmund. Activities abound and dining delights
Damaraland features vast khaki plains, sheer rocky mountains and incredible desert-adapted wildlife. Track rhino and desert elephant, explore the rugged land or sit back and enjoy the dramatic and endless scenery. Damaraland's hilly savannah supports a large number of species including lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena, eland, kudu, giraffe, klipspringer, steenbok, gemsbok and springbok. Birdlife is prolific with over 33 raptors recorded including cuckoo hawks, Egyptian vultures and peregrine falcons - the world's fastest animal.
Damaraland is divided into several enormous private game reserves, known as concessions, that support most species of Namibia's large game and provide some of the best birding and wildlife experiences in the country - and southern Africa for that matter.
Located just south of the boundary of Etosha National Park in northwestern Namibia, Etosha South makes up the southern region of this wild paradise. The area is comprised of a collection of world class private game reserves. The national park can be accessed via the southern entrance at Andersson’s Gate. Visitors can catch a glimpse of a variety of wildlife including: lion, giraffe, elephant, white and black rhino, and a multitude of plains game. Popular activities include: enjoying an open 4x4 safari with an expert guide, half day or full day drives with the option of a picnic lunch with wine on the full day game drive.
On the eastern edge of Etosha National Park, the park itself is bordered by numerous private reserves and access into the park is via the Von Lindequist Gate, named after Dr. Friedrich von Lindequist who proclaimed it a game reserve in March 1907. This side of the park is characterised by flat endless plains, tree-savanna type of vegetation and fantastic waterholes, where you could easily spot any of the prolific wildlife Etosha is known for. There's an abundance of wildlife here.
Caprivi West forms part of the Caprivi strip that protrudes from the northeastern corner of Namibia into Botswana and bordering on Angola. Here you're east of Rundu and on the western side of the Bwabwata National Park. The Caprivi is a lush, sub-tropical wetland offering a wealth of natural resources and serves as a haven for an abundance of wildlife, including the critically endangered African wild dog. This is the only spot in Namibia where one can spot the majestic Nile crocodile and the mighty hippo.
The Caprivi is a paradise for nature lovers with its free-roaming wildlife and postcard-perfect areas. Birdwatchers will be overjoyed as they keep an eye out for the 400 plus bird species that soar above. Visit the rapids of Popa Falls, go on game drives in the Mahango and Buffalo Core Areas of the greater Bwabwata National Park and enjoy the Okavango River.
Maun. A town in northern Botswana on the banks of Thamalakane River. To the San people, the place of short reeds. To today’s tourists, the gateway to the Okavango Delta, Moremi Game Reserve and Chobe river. It's a tiny outpost really, halfway between the juicy delta and the parched salt pans. This is Botswana’s tourism capital and the fifth largest town of Botswana.
From Maun take a day trip to explore the famed wetlands of the Okavango Delta or take a scenic flight to discover the vast expanse of sprawling river channels that bring to life to this verdant oasis. Have a sundowner on the Thamalakane River, a great spot for a drink and to enjoy one of Africa's famed sunsets. Enjoy local village and cultural tours and meet the friendly Batswana people
Crammed with every conceivable species of bird and beast, the delta is an Eden of excess. Amazing game viewing and birding in a scenic and tranquil African wilderness. If you’re looking for a true African safari. Look no further.
The quintessential delta experience: game drives in open safari vehicles and gliding in silence through the waterways on an African-style gondola carved from a single tree.
Access into the Okavango Delta is difficult, getting around is difficult, carting supplies in and waste out is difficult. These are all good things for this vast wildlife wilderness is utterly picturesque and devoid of human influence.
If constant close-ups of elephant, buffalo, lion, giraffe, hyena, jackal and plenty of large and small antelope start to grow old, there's always the chance encounter with cheetah, leopard, wild dog, and red lechwe to spice things up.
The Chobe River is the arterial life-line that shoulders its way towards its confluence with the Zambezi River. En route it gets tangled up with the Kwando River to form the Linyanti Wetlands - an area of pristine beauty and exceptional game viewing.
Elephants abound along the Chobe River along with the gamut of plains species including buffalo, lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena, wild dog, giraffe, zebra, kudu and so on down the height chart to the rare water-friendly red lechwe and puku antelopes.
A gazillion tonnes of water thundering over a sheer cliff drowns all other sounds. The swirling mist hides all sign of human activity. Beyond your rain forest sanctuary people are hurling themselves off bridges, across gorges, into walls of raging water and out of aircraft.
Victoria Falls is a paradox of tranquil beauty and exciting adventure.
Mosi-oa-Tunya, 'The Smoke that Thunders' is undoubtedly Zimbabwe's finest and most well-known attraction. It is or rather was (if you're keeping up with the latest list) one of the Seven World Wonders. We still believe it deserves the title. It truly is spectacular and not considered to be one of the world's largest waterfalls without good reason. It's not the widest or the highest, yet it is considered to the largest based on its combined width, at 1,708 metres wide and height, at 108 metres. Impressively it takes the title for the largest sheet of falling water.
