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Our guide announced that before actually heading to our hotel in Swakopmund, we were going to have a “sundowner” and that this was the third surprise he mentioned to us earlier when we left Solitaire. None of us knew what a “sundowner” actually was, even though we had heard of the term a few times during the trip. So, he explained that this is a Namibian tradition…and a lifestyle…and for some, an art. In Namibia, after a long, hot day in the sun, looking at wildlife of all ki

We had a brief stopover at Walvis Bay on our way to Swakopmund. Walvis Bay ( Walvisbaai in Afrikaans, which means, “Whale Bay” in English) is a port town on the Atlantic coast of Namibia. The name conjured images of whales, dolphins, sea gulls, and busy harbours with ships and fishing boats. Our guide added pelicans, flamingos, Cape Fur seals, lighthouses, and palm trees to the list, but said that there are almost no more whales. They were wiped out by the avid whalers of th

Our guide took us to another peculiar place with an astounding landscape. Just off the C28 road lies an expansive lunar-like world aptly called Moon Valley or Moon Landscape. It was once a big mountain range carved by the Swakop River, but erosion has reduced it into low-lying hills. This area is not only a photographer’s haven, but as a former TV production person, I saw it as an ideal location for filming fantasy shows. Our guide told us that in fact, some scenes of the dys

We headed north of the Sesriem Canyon to see samples of the Welwitschia Mirabilis plants. When we asked what was so special about it, our guide explained by way of repeating what the Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (whose name escapes me) said to his audience when this plant was first presented to him in England in 1863. “It is out of the question the most wonderful plant ever brought to this country, and one of the ugliest,” he said apparently. That got us i

Half an hour after leaving Solitaire, we reached the Tropic of Capricorn precisely located at 23°26′11.1″ south of the Equator. The Tropic of Capricorn runs through Africa, Australia, and South America. Also called the Southern Tropic, it is described as "the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December (or southern) Solstice. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reaches 90 degrees below the horizon a

We drove to Solitaire, a small settlement in the Khomas Region of central Namibia. It sits just south of the Tropic of Capricorn at the centre of a 45,000 -acre trust land that preserves the ecosystem and wildlife in the region. Our guide said that this town is popular among long-distance travelers because it features the only gas station that you can find between the sand dunes of the Sossusvlei and the coast of Walvis Bay. This gas station also serves as a general store, b

Our home for the night was the Namib Naukluft Lodge, one of two establishments located on a private desert reserve called Nam Hau Habitat. It is a 25,000-hectare nature park that spans the area between the Namib Desert and the Naukluft Mountains, and occupies a unique and diverse desert environment for its varied wildlife. Since its establishment in 1993, animals have been allowed to freely roam undisturbed there, and this desert has hosted a variety of wild game. Pumps ope

We were excited to see another famous canyon. Located approximately 4.5 kilometers from the Namib-Naufkluft National Park’s entrance gate, is Sesriem Canyon, the second most important tourist attraction in the area after Sossusvlei. It is eponymously named after “six leather straps” in Afrikaans. The settlers, who had to tie six ( ses ) leather straps ( riems ) together to create a rope long enough for a bucket to reach the water source down below, thought of this name. Sesri

We drove east towards Sesriem. We were to stay at Hammerstein Lodge. Situated between Luderitz and Swakopmund, and nestled between the Nubib and Tsaris mountains, this place was the perfect base for exploring the Sossusvlei region. The property is about a kilometer off the dirt road and the entrance is marked by a huge tree limb with a copper statue of a wild cat. Within the compound are bungalows equipped with full kitchens, bed and breakfast lodgings, and a campsite. There

We were in for another four-hour drive that day, up north to Maltahohe. The small town of Maltahohe, which lies on the edge of the Swartrand escarpment, has a main road, around a kilometer long, that runs through its centre and is fringed by a few small shops, a country hotel, a petrol station, and towered over by an imposing Dutch Reformed Church. Our guide took us there to see the Duwisib Castle, a grand pseudo-medieval-looking fortress on the hills of the semi-arid Sou

Our sundowner drive was a perfect opportunity to experience the beauty of the Gondwana Sperrgebiet Rand Park at dusk and to see the elusive and enigmatic feral horses of the Namib Desert as they conglomerated at their favourite watering hole in Garub Pan, west of Aus. When we arrived, we parked near the wooden shelter at the end of a gravel road. We waited for the sunset and the arrival of the horses. For a few minutes, there was nothing to see but the barren plains of Garub

As we drove along a railway line on the B4 national road, we realized how vast and underpopulated Namibia is. On the dust roads through the arid landscape, all we could see were spectacular views of the desert, rocky outcrops, sand dunes, and a LOT of open space. We would drive for miles and miles and not come across a single village or even a tiny settlement. The only other signs of life were the occasional wildlife. We were reminded that in Namibia, wild animals are not res

The Fish River Canyon is the second largest canyon in the world, next to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It features a gigantic ravine, about 160 kilometers long, 27 kilometers wide, and 550 meters deep in some areas. It overlooks the Fish River, which is the longest interior river in Namibia that cuts deep into the plateau. At the time of our visit, the river was nearly dry. Our guide said that it only flows intermittently, usually flooding in the late summer. This was one of

Our next destination was Gondwana Canyon Park, a private reserve with a landscape dominated by plateaus and intercepted by granite hills and dolerite dykes. I can’t even describe how beautiful this was! We were to stay at the Gondwana Canyon Village, set among the granite boulders in the middle of the vast plain east of the Fish River Canyon (which we were scheduled to visit the following day). As we approached the property, I glimpsed numerous stone-and-thatch chalets sp

We continued south to Naute Dam, just outside of Keetmanshoop. Not everyone goes out of his way to see a dam, except maybe for some of the more famous dams in the world - the Three Gorges Dam in China, the Hoover Dam in the USA) and the Itaipu Dam along the borders of Brazil and Paraguay in South America. But this one, we heard is also quite significant. Built between 1970 and 1972, the Naute Dam is the third largest dam in Namibia and is predominantly used for irrigation,

To continue our magical experience, our guide took us to Giants’ Playground , an area of geological wonder, and one that mesmerized my geologist husband. This place is filled with a maze of massive stacked dolerite rock formations, as if left there in haste by a gang of kid giants who were suddenly summoned for snack time. The name conjures an image of a prehistoric playground littered with “rock Lego ” blocks or “rock Jenga ” pieces. These structures are said to have been

After a hearty breakfast, we set off to travel the rest of the Kalahari stretch. Along the way, we passed by a trailer full of sheep parked in the curb in the middle of nowhere. We wondered what the trailer was doing here, until we saw the driver relieving himself on the road side. Our guide thought he would do the same as we had a few more hours of driving and he had more than a little bit of coffee at our last stop. While he did his business, my husband and I got off and sa

The next morning, as arranged, we checked out of our hotel and waited for our official tour guide at the lobby after breakfast. He arrived in his van, introduced himself, and helped us load our luggage. He’s an Austrian guy who has been living in Windhoek for the past ten years and works full time as a tour guide. He told us that this was going to be a very small group. Apart from us, there was only one other couple – two Germans vacationing from Hanover. He spoke English, Ge

Our driver/tour guide arrived at the hotel lobby on the dot and announced that we were going to Dusternbrook Guest Farm . He explained that a guest farm is smaller than a safari lodge. It is basically an independent, often-family-run ranch that provides accommodation to travelers in areas where one doesn’t normally find large tourists or buses. Dusternbrook is said to be the first guest farm in Namibia and is only 45-minutes from Windhoek. He said that we would be in time f