The hidden beauty of Namibia

On arriving in Windhoek, Namibia Jill and I quickly realized that the best way to see the vast landscape was by driving ourselves, hiking through the national parks and camping at night. So, after a few days in the capital city, Jill and I drove out in a newly rented truck packed with 75 liters of drinking water, food, camping gear and an extra 20 liter can of spare gasoline--worthy provisions for and expedition into the Namib Desert.

Poring drinking water from a 25 liter jug.

Our first stop, Khorixas, a small outpost at the threshold where paved roads meet gravel. Here we camped for the night at a nicer lodge to ease our transition into the vast, desolate spaces to come. Unbeknownst to us, our lodge was home to the most persistent chickens and peacocks in all of Africa.


Day 2 started with an assortment of interesting wayside stops from dusty, desert craft shops staffed by life-sized voodoo-dolls to a petrified tree trunk spanning 30 meters across the ground.

Whats for sale? Rocks, of course.

Burnt Mountain

Frozen in time

After our first eerie sensations of desert life Jill and I aimed our truck for the Skeleton Cost--but first, the two dried up rivers between us and the ocean...

Wanting to cut a few kilometers off the trip I had the great idea of taking smaller roads around Khorixas instead of going back through the city. This route took us through the back yards of desert dwelling folk who I must say are very solitary people. Out the window of our air conditioned cab we would see a few dozen makeshift houses in any given settlement but would be lucky to see just one head poke out eying us cutting through their town.

My back road changed from gravel to dirt, from dirt to packed sand and eventually opened out onto a wide expanse of soft wavy sand shaped by a river that had long since dried up. Knowing that a heavily loaded 2 wheel drive truck wouldn't fare well on soft sand I pushed the vehicle into second gear and flew into the sand gliding to the other side with only a few big bumps and a small amount of sand over the windshield.

Deciding that a real road would suit us better I steered us back on the main drag and let Jill take the wheel resuming our drive to the Skeleton Cost.

The Skeleton Cost in a strip in Namibia where the hot sun of the Namib Desert meets the cool waves of the Atlantic Ocean. So named from the shipwrecks spotting the cost from whom shipwrecked sailors once emerged to see the ocean waves give way to waves of dry desert sand stretching all the way to the horizon.

The Skeleton coast seamed to play tricks on the eyes at times with such amazing features as a salt pan that looked like snow.

Salt, not snow or ice

Jill feeling the cubic crystals of the salt pan.

Jill and I spent two days and a night driving up and down the coast, camping on the wind blown beach, taking in shipwrecks, a seal beach and just admiring the bazaar landscape.


Moving on, we next drove through Swakopmund and Walvis Bay to Namib-Naukluft Park, which we were to make our home for the next four days.

Our first camp site

And our view that evening

Our favorite camp tucked under a granite cliff overlooking the vast plains.

Namib-Naukluft Park is extraordinarily large and varies in landscape from arid grass lands to granite outcroppings which eventually give way to dark red sand dunes. Some of the wildlife we found consisted of herds of zebra, kudus and ostrich—one of which raced our truck and we clocked it going 30 kilometers per hour.

When not chasing animals in Namib-Naukluft Park, Jill and I enjoyed some long walks around very interesting formations.




After 4 days in Namib-Naukluft Park Jill and I moved on to our final destination of the week, Sossusvlei. In this part of the Namibian park system the landscape is made up completely of semi stable and shifting sand dunes. Jill and I had allot of fun struggling to the top of these dunes which was an amazing amount of work. On the most difficult dune that I summated I was continually sliding down while climbing up much like being on a treadmill. The dune also swallowed up my feet in sand so to pull one foot out of the sand meant driving the other foot deeper into the sand creating a vicious cycle. The fun part, of course, was coming down and we could take huge leaps falling many feet down but would always be cushioned by the soft sand.


At this point all three of our water jugs were dry and it was time to head back into civilization. As the week came to a close we knew that Namibia would always hold a special place in our hearts. A place to explore and enjoy the natural beauty of the world around us.