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

Lonely Planet dubs Namibia as “Africa for Beginners,” and adds that “it is a wonderful place to start.” For me, Namibia is indeed bursting with an aura of “newfangledness.” I knew almost nothing about it before, except that it was formerly called Southwest Africa (west of the more popular South Africa), that it was once a German colony, and that it was the country where celebrity and UN refugee ambassador Angelina Jolie chose to give birth to her daughter Shiloh in 2006. Tha