Namibia, or have no idea where it is. Namibia is in southern Africa, along the southwest coast, just northwest of South Africa. Of course, when I
explain that part, their next reaction is often "Africa!? isn't that dangerous?". The answer is no, its not, certainly not any more so than
travelling in any other remote part of the world (like Death Valley).
That said, Namibia was absolutely amazing. The scenery is easily comparable to highlights of some of America's most spectacular
southwestern landscapes. It has massive sand dunes, buttes, broad valleys, and canyons. On top of that, they've got ghost towns from over
a century of diamond mining and nearly all the classic African animals that people often think of (lions, cheetahs, rhinos, elephants, etc), which adds
an extra layer of awesome. Then because Namibia is twice the size of California, yet only has about 2 million people, much of the country is
wide open, empty, undeveloped space, so the scenery is rarely spoiled by anything. The road system is excellent, with a mixture of paved & gravel
roads, which are well maintained & frequently graded. I rented a 4x4 Toyota Hilux (basically the rest of the world's version of the Tacoma), and
drove nearly 3000 miles. But enough rambling, I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
Quiver trees at Fish River Canyon
Bogenfels
Cape Cross pup
Little Vlei
bath time
Solitude
last tree
Sesriem Canyon
Sperrgebiet (restricted zone)
Vingerklip
Vingerklip view
Oryx foragers
Descent into the canyon
Red sand, red road
Fish River overlook
Jackal
Fish River Canyon, the 2nd largest on earth
entering the slot
Hunting for the kill
Kolmanskopp
On the prowl
Ranchland
Dunes at dawn
Garub station
The void
home of the welwitschia
Sperrgebiet view
not rush hour
shy
no limits
bowling in 1909
the Namib reclaims all
jump!
ohai
Deadvlei
elephant x-ing
empty
whatchu lookin at?
sand room
Fish river canyon
The king (Etosha National Park)
me and a lot of salt
For the curious, I've posted over 700 photos from the trip HERE,
and I've written up a detailed day by day trip report (with gpx log) HERE.
