Namibia

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Abandoned houses near Luderitz ❘ maydays/Getty Images
Shipwreck on the Skeleton Coast ❘ Lukas Bischoff
Elephants at a water hole ❘ Tom Nebbia/Getty Images
Namib Desert ❘ Marco Bottigelli/Getty Images
Seals at Cape Cross ❘ Edwin Remsberg/Getty Images
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Shipwrecks and whale bones meet salt pans and sand dunes.

The Namib Desert is one of the world’s only coastal deserts, so dry that the wildlife survive off of moisture from the fog.

Land and sky both seem endless in the deserts of Namibia. It’s light on crowds and heavy on wide-open landscapes. Wander deserts spotted with ghost towns, shipwrecks, and towering dunes, or nature reserves teeming with wildlife.

The best way to see Namibia’s backcountry is to fly into its centrally located capital of Windhoek and rent a car to take you along the gravel roads. From there, an itinerary might take you north to Etosha National Park, west to the Skeleton Coast, or south into the sands of the Namib Desert.

While it’s also a diverse wildlife preserve, Etosha National Park in the north of the country is perhaps best known for its eponymous salt pan, which is so large it can be seen from space. It was an enormous lake about 16,000 years ago, but now shimmers white, its surface rife with cracks. Like the park at large, the pan is dotted with watering holes, where visitors can observe wildlife in the dry season, when they congregate to drink.

Sand dunes in Namibian desert ❘ TravelCouples/Getty Images

Even more dramatic landscapes can be found along the Skeleton Coast, a national park that covers the northern half of Namibia’s coastline. The name comes from the bones of whales and other sea creatures that were left on the shore by the whaling industry. It later became associated with shipwrecks—a thousand of them, caused by the rocks, fog, and heavy surf of the coast. Today, travelers can stay at the Shipwreck Lodge, with 10 chalets built to look like they were just cast off from a particularly rough tide. A drive to Cape Cross Seal Reserve reveals a breeding colony for fur seals, and farther south, in Walvis Bay, a microalgae called Dunaliella salina turns the water a sunset combination of orange and pink. The bay is also home to a restaurant on stilts, accessible only by boat.

To the south of the Skeleton Coast is the Namib Desert, one of the world’s only coastal deserts, also known as the “Sand Sea,” so dry that the wildlife (such as dune larks and reptiles) survive off of moisture from the fog. While most travelers will head directly to the Sossusvlei, a prehistoric riverbed surrounded by towering red dunes, the sandscapes of the surrounding desert are just as thrilling. In the shadow of those red dunes lies Dead Vlei, Afrikaans for “dead marsh,” which has been completely desiccated, leaving behind trees to dry and decompose. (You may recognize the landscape from the film Mad Max: Fury Road.) Toward the coast, past a herd of desert horses, lies Kolmanskop, a ghost town where sand has overtaken buildings once constructed to support diamond mining operations. The crowds are minimal, and haunting images lurk at every turn.

KEEP WANDERING

Additional resources to learn more about Namibia

Namibian Arts Association, Windhoek

A locally-minded art gallery.
Learn More

Independence Memorial Museum, Windhoek

Dedicated to the country’s anticolonial struggle.
Learn More

Kapana In Town

Sample Windhoek’s signature grilled meats.
Learn More

Self-Driving Safari Adventures

See the country on your own terms.
Learn More

Etosha National Park

Wild watering holes.
Learn More
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