Photograph by Wilderness Safaris
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Namibia is one of the world's most arid countries, yet it has a unique and captivating beauty.
The vast Namib Desert occupies much of the territory and gave the nation its name.
To the north and east of the sandy wilderness lie rocky deserts with moonscapes, and dry thornveld savanna.
Where the Namib meets the cold Atlantic Ocean, unusual weather conditions prevail and the resultant mist and fog in the early mornings brings moisture to help sustain a wide variety of desert creatures.
The Skeleton Coast is the treacherous stretch of coastline to the north of Swakopmund.
The Orange River forms the border with South Africa, and the Kunene and Kavango Rivers run along the northern frontier.
In between, there is precious little water at all.
Etosha National Park - one of the world's largest and most famous wildlife sanctuaries - is set in the northern savanna region.
See Best of Namibia for our suggested itineraries in Namibia.
The Namib Desert
Much of Namibia is dominated by the Namib which may well be the world's oldest desert. It is a coastal desert which hosts an extraordinary range of hauntingly beautiful landscapes, as well as some of the world's most intriguing flora and fauna including the famous prehistoric Welwitschia Mirabilis plants. Actually classified as trees, many Welwitschia are thousands of years old and are perfect examples of adaptation to an extremely hostile environment. Many other plants and animals have developed unique mechanisms for survival.
Swakopmund
Located on the coast north of the Namib Naukluft National park, this pleasant small city has an old world German charm. It offers good hotels, restaurants, craft shops and cafes: a nice contrast with the harsh desert on the town's doorstep and welcome break in the middle of a safari. Day trips from Swakopmund include the seal colony at Cape Cross, the flamingoes at Walvis Bay, and sunset excursions into the dunes along the coast. There is a good small aquarium that focuses on the unique marine ecosystem off the Namibian Coast.
The Skeleton Coast
The infamous Skeleton Coast - so named because of the many lives claimed by its treacherous shores - is a wild and spectacularly beautiful area north of Swakopmund. Visitors may gain an introduction to the Skeleton Coast by driving up out of Swakopmund to the Cape Cross seal colony (where tens of thousands of cape fur seals breed) and on north to Bay where there is a tiny museum. But an in depth understanding of the area requires an extended stay in the restricted zone of the northern part of the Skeleton Coast National Park. 4-6 day small group packages are available. These are expensive but well worth the price. Most include overflights of the shipwrecks scattered along the coast, opportunities to walk and drive through the rugged terrain in search of desert adapted wildlife species and nights spent in comfortable tented camps.
The Far North
The Northern region extends from the sparsely populated Kunene Region in the west across the four densely populated regions of Owambo to the lush, green Caprivi Stip in the far northeastern part of Namibia; a long thin stip of land between Botswana and Angola where the ecosystem more closely resembles that of Botswana's Okavango Delta than anything found elsewhere in the country.
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