Afrinkong
The Namib
Fifty-five million years old, and dunes at Sossusvlei three hundred metres high.
Photo Hub JACQU / Pexels
NAMIBIA · Tourism
Where the Desert Meets the Wild
The oldest desert on earth running into the Atlantic — Sossusvlei's dunes, the Skeleton Coast, Etosha's waterholes and Damaraland's desert elephant, across a country with almost nobody in it.
Southern AfricaRegion
27Tourism experiences
Where the desert meets the wildKnown for
01
Featured destinations
Where the country actually takes you.
MountainsThe Brandberg and the Escarpment
The Brandberg is 2,573 metres and holds the White Lady, one of Africa's known rock paintings.
Photo Hc Digital / Pexels
WaterfallsEpupa
The Kunene drops through a gorge on the Angolan border, with baobabs on the rim.
Photo Arno Smit / Unsplash
Lakes & RiversThe Kunene and the Zambezi
Two permanent rivers, one on each border, and dry riverbeds for everything in between.
Beaches & CoastThe Skeleton Coast
Fifteen hundred kilometres of Atlantic, fog, shipwrecks and seal colonies.
Photo JP Desvigne / Unsplash
Forests & RainforestThe Caprivi Woodland
No rainforest — the green is in the Zambezi region, riverine and full of elephant.
Photo Frank Cone / Pexels
02
Wildlife & safari
What lives here, and how you see it without disturbing it.
Wildlife
Desert-Adapted Wildlife
Elephant and rhino that walk sixty kilometres between water, and lion that hunt seals.
Photo Rino Adamo / Pexels
Etosha
Game that comes to you: in the dry season everything in the park is at one of the waterholes.
Photo Rino Adamo / Pexels
Eco TourismConservancies
Communal conservancies cover a fifth of the country and are why the black rhino survived.
03
Culture & heritage
The part of a country you cannot photograph from a vehicle.
Culture
Eleven Peoples
Owambo, Herero, Damara, Nama, San and more, and German still on half the street signs.
Photo Khulani Faniso / Pexels
Traditional PeopleThe Himba
The Himba of the Kunene, whose way of life is genuinely intact and should be visited carefully.
Food & CuisineBraai and Biltong
Game meat over coals, biltong on every counter, and German bread that is actually German.
Festivals & CelebrationsWindhoek Karnival and Maherero Day
The Windhoek carnival in April, and Maherero Day at Okahandja in August.
Photo Skylight Views / Pexels
Traditional Arts & CraftsBasketry and Ostrich Shell
Kavango wood carving, San ostrich-eggshell beadwork, and Herero doll making.
Photo Chris F / Pexels
Historic SitesTwyfelfontein
Two thousand rock engravings on one hillside, cut into sandstone six thousand years ago.
Kolmanskop and the Coast
A diamond town the desert has taken back, and the German colonial coast at Lüderitz.
Photo Taylor Wright / Unsplash
04
Cities & everyday life
Where people actually live between the landmarks.
CitiesWindhoek and Swakopmund
Windhoek on the highveld, and Swakopmund where German architecture meets Atlantic fog.
Photo Anqi Lu / Unsplash
Colonial and Desert Vernacular
German colonial in the towns, and camps built to disappear into the gravel plains.
Local LifeThe Long Road
Fuel, biltong and a farm stall every two hundred kilometres, and that is the day.
Photo Shane Kell / Pexels
Family & CommunityEasy and Safe to Drive
Good roads, no malaria in most of it, and children who will remember the dunes.
Photo Joe McDaniel / Unsplash
05
Adventure & outdoors
For travellers who would rather walk it than watch it.
Adventure
Self-Drive Country
The best self-drive country in Africa: gravel roads, long distances and nobody on them.
Photo Vicky Sim / Unsplash
Outdoor ExperiencesDune, Quad, Balloon
Climbing Big Daddy, quad biking at Swakopmund, and balloons over the Namib at dawn.
Photo zhou shen / Pexels
Desert Camps
Small camps in private concessions the size of counties, and almost no light pollution.
06
Travel inspiration
The frames people come home with.
The Cleanest Light in Africa
Dry air, no haze, and one of the darkest night skies measured anywhere.
Photo Sahil Raut / Pexels
The Kunene
The far north-west: Epupa, the Himba, and roads that need two vehicles.
Why Visit This Country
Space, and the Silence in It
Two and a half million people in a country twice the size of Germany.
Space, and the Silence in It
Two and a half million people in a country twice the size of Germany.
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