Roadtrip Namibia

Most of my adventures have started in the same place, the terminals of Manchester Airport. I have flown in and out of there since I was only a few months old, it has been the airport where my parents waved me off on my first solo adventure back in 2015, it was the airport which began such monumental trips such as my Scandinavia trip, my first ever flights back in 1999, and my first ever time to the African continent in 2009. Needless to say, this trip out of Yorkshire and across the Pennines to Manchester airport was the beginning of another monumental trip.

If there’s one place that brings me such joy, it is airport arrivals. Watching families, couples and friends be reunited with cheers, tears, flowers, hugs and shrieks of happiness. As I strode out of customs and into the arrivals lounge, I noticed a young man with a bunch of flowers waiting for his partner, I noticed people running towards each other, their luggage dragging along behind them, I noticed reunions of families and wondered how long they had been apart. But finally, I noticed my parents, waving frantically from within the crowds. It was the first time that I had been greeted at airport arrivals by my parents, we usually flew out together or I flew out first, but this trip was different.

If you hadn’t guessed by the title, I was in Africa once again. The continent which birthed humanity, the continent which I would consider our true home, the motherland of everyone. Even after a long 13-hour flight plus layovers, I still had an ounce or two of energy to express my excitement as I ran towards my parents. We had only been apart for just under two weeks, in fact we spend a lot of our time apart, in the previous year alone we spent about 3 months away from each other, exploring different places all over the world at our own pace and leisure. I am so grateful that my parents brought me up to value travelling and adventure, and of course I’m grateful that they’re fine with letting me go exploring these new places by myself.

So, introduction aside, I found myself in the charming city of Cape Town, only eleven years since I had first visited. Needless to say, it was easy to see the difference, sky scrapers had sprouted from the ground, the airport had certainly changed, and the stadiums build for the 2010 World Cup had now been finished (I should hope so too!)

I had arrived at 11pm so the view from our drive to the hotel didn’t show off the true changes of the city, it wasn’t until the next morning that I realised, when we were stood in the never-ending line for the cable car up Table Mountain. The views from the top were worth the hour or two wait, the clouds had lifted, providing us with a phenomenal panoramic view of the entire city and ocean. We took photos, had a couple of beers before eventually joining another never-ending queue for the cable car back to the base. Us British are somewhat known for our love of queuing, perhaps its because it is a skill we have mastered between us, it’s easy to spot a Brit when you’re in a queue, well maybe it should be, it’s easy to spot a non-Brit when you’re in a queue, if you know, you know.

Aside from a bit more sightseeing in Cape Town, and a trip down to the Cape of Good Hope – which was inevitably rather pointless as the bad weather had meant that you couldn’t even see down the road, never mind getting a view of where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet! It was somewhat disappointing but you can’t control the weather.

Possibly the highlight of the Cape Town visit was the day at Newland Cricket Ground watching England play in the test match. I won’t lie, I don’t know the rules to cricket – I did attempt to read into the rules beforehand but it didn’t really make that much sense to me. Either way I celebrated when the Barmy Army celebrated, and it was a great atmosphere, with friendliness from both teams, music playing in the background and sunshine all day. This sounds like heaven for a lot of sports fans but it did give me a severe case of heat stroke, I’ll argue that it was worth the pain!

But you’re here to hear about Namibia, aren’t you? Then let me begin....

You may be wondering, the title of this blog post is “Roadtrip Namibia”, but you’re not in Namibia? Most people probably don’t realise that Namibia is even a country, and certainly couldn’t pinpoint it on a map. Instead of sending you off to google it, I’ll be nice enough to explain it.

Namibia is a country in Southern Africa, it borders South Africa in the South - go figure! It borders Angola in the north, Botswana in the East and the Southern Atlantic Ocean to the West. Namibia also has a border with Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, which is the only place on earth where four countries’ borders meet in one point. Now, Namibia wouldn’t have been a typical option for us but after we were ensured that it would be an amazing adventure, my dad, my uncle and I decided it would be an appropriate destination for a road trip.

African airports and flights are very different to European and North American ones. As a European, I see airports as the one place you absolutely cannot joke around without risking being detained. They are busy yet sterile environments where you feel like you are being watched everywhere. However, African airports are slightly different, in my experience anyway. Usually in airports you have to take your liquids out of your bag and have them in a separate plastic bag, not in Africa, they just shove them back into your actual bag and send them through the scanner. There also seems to be an abundance of wildlife in African airports, in Tanzania we spotted a wild street cat trotting around at the Kilimanjaro Airport. Windhoek airport in Namibia had birds flying around it as well as the odd moth, mosquito and beetle. And finally, at Banjul Airport in The Gambia, they actually have outdoor departure gates where you can sit and drink beer in the sun, something that seems to be a thing of luxury in larger airports such as Singapore.

So, after an ‘uneventful’ flight from Cape Town where a woman was medically evacuated, I vomited in the toilets and we had a random stop at Walvis Bay, we were ready to hit the road.

This road trip was slightly different than previous ones, mainly being that I had meticulously planned every single car journey, hotel, campsite and excursion. We didn’t really know what to expect from Namibia, so we prepared for the absolute worst-case scenario and rented the most reliable vehicle we could find, paid extra for; roof tents, a satellite phone, spare jerrycans for water and fuel, two spare tyres, shovels, tow ropes and a GPS. Better to be safe than sorry ey!

I did kind of throw us in at the deep end on day one. We had a couple of hours drive to a campsite in the middle of nowhere - you’ll learn that everywhere in Namibia is in the middle of nowhere! After delays at the airport and sorting the paperwork for the car, we were finally on the road. The first journey definitely gave us a false sense of security as it was beautifully tarmacked, these ‘B-roads’ in Namibia are few and far between, but we were blessed with them for the majority of the first days journey.

There are two kinds of people in this world, those who associate Africa with the culture, climate and the people, and those who associate it with the anthem that is ‘Africa by Toto’. The lyrics to this musical masterpiece go; “I bless the rains down in Africa”. To most, it’s just another lyric for a karaoke, but in Africa, when it rains, it RAINS. Namibia threw a quick thunder and lightning storm at us as we attempted to find the first camp at Okonjima Lodge - part of the Africat foundation. The Africat foundation was founded in the 1990s to support the long-term conservation of the large carnivores in Namibia, within their natural habitat. It is a large nature reserve which was developed to support the preservation of the big cats.

The clearly signed entrance took us onto an orange dirt road which continued on for miles and miles. At this point it was 9pm, still raining, and very very dark. After a bit of confusion and lack of communication with the security gates, we arrived at our campsite at 11pm. But the worst was yet to come...

Putting up a tent is hard enough, but imagine having to put up a tent that is on top of a vehicle, in the pitch black, in the rain and with little instruction - it went as well as you can imagine... My ‘bed’ for the night was the back seats of the vehicle which fortunately didn’t require any of the hassle apart from unpacking a sleeping bag. I managed to locate the toilets eventually but was quite surprised to see that they were open fronted (had no door whatsoever). Now, at night this was a daunting sight, I was expecting a hyena to come and maul me at any moment. But fortunately, no hyena arrived, so I was spared.

It wasn’t a particularly comfortable nights sleep, the car alarm went off every time I moved - so I ended up leaving the front door open which disabled the alarm, but did allow a few mosquitos to pay me a visit. I woke up in the middle of the night to hear a shuffling noise around outside the vehicle, I wasn’t too concerned until I remembered I had left the door fully open. Fortunately, no killer beast appeared, but it did make me wonder whether it was just a springbok, or if it was something more sinister.

The sunrise woke us up at 6am, as well as the sounds of screeching birds and insects. It was certainly easier to pack the tent away during the day and we were soon on our way to our next destination; Etosha National Park. If you’ve been to Africa, then you’ll know about the termite hills, they are large mounds of dirt made by termites and are absolutely huge! The ones in Namibia were no different, some of them were taller than trees. A truly bizarre yet completely normal thing about Africa.

The main attraction of Etosha National Park is oddly, the largest Salt Pan in Africa. So large in fact that it can be seen from space! When you think of a salt pan, most people don’t really know what to expect, but the truth is, it’s is kind of what you expect. Nothing. It is literally nothing. Just an expanse of white which disappears far into the horizon, making you feel like you’re stood at the end of the earth and it’s just a blank canvas after that. It is completely bizarre to be standing looking out at this great expanse of nothing. No grass, no water, no trees, no animals. Just the ground and the sky.

Even more bizarrely is the abundance of animals on the edge of the salt pan. Even just driving down the road we spotted giraffes, herds of zebra, springboks and most notably, white rhinos! We drove around all day, exploring the different routes and looking out for different animals. In fact, by the time we got to the lodge, we had nearly seen every animal that we wanted to see! Minus elephants and lions of course. In an attempt to spot these animals, we got up very early the next morning to head back towards the gate, continuing our road trip. However, luck wasn’t quite on our side as we didn’t spot anything interesting other than a large giraffe crossing the road directly in front of our vehicle.

We followed the road West towards the Namib Desert until the tarmac ended and it turned into a rocky track, after stopping on the side of the road, we quickly realised that this was the last tarmac road we would see for five days, if everything went to plan. The rocky track certainly made it difficult to nap during the longer car journeys but eventually we got used to it – and to think I used to get travel sickness, this would have been my worst nightmare!

Our next stop on the road trip was the Petrified Forest, which sounded terrifying but turns out it is less sinister than it sounds. Petrified wood is simply fossilised wood, but the petrified forest in Namibia is home to some of the oldest wood in the world – 280 million years old to be exact. The trees weren’t always located in Namibia, but had washed down a flooded river in ancient times from Europe, at the end of one of the ice ages. The flood carried a large amount of sand and mud which inevitably covered up the trees, therefore preserving them perfectly as no decay could take place. Natural erosion has meant that these trees are now exposed and able to be viewed properly.

Before arriving at the camp, we decided to make the most out of the remaining daylight and took a drive around the mountains. Everything was barren, very few houses and certainly no tourists. I did have a bizarre moment at this point, we were driving and suddenly I felt like we were in a very familiar place. Even though we hadn’t driven this way before, it wasn’t familiar in that sense, but I felt like I had been there before. I used to have a recurring dream when I was on anti-malarials, the dream was about a hotel and museum on top of a mountain and waterfall, it was in a landscape much like this. As we continued, we saw a hotel which was at the base of a mountain and I suddenly remembered the dream! It wasn’t exactly the same, obviously there aren’t large waterfalls in a desert, but it was certainly a spooky moment. Yet I felt totally at peace, I guess it’s that the desert does to you. I rarely feel ‘at home’ when I am travelling, but there are certain places where I have definitely left a part of my heart, I can safely say that the Namib Desert was one of these safe places for me. It was hard to comprehend that the Namib Desert is arguably the oldest desert in the world, which means that nothing has changed in this area for 80 million years, and chances are, nothing will change here within the next 80 million years either.

Our campsite for tonight was deep within the ancient Namib Desert where tarmac roads are again unheard of. Due to the fact we had decided to visit Namibia off-peak, it wasn’t surprising to see that we were the only guests. Despite the campsite not having any electricity, they still somehow managed to provide us with cold beers upon arrival, as well as cooking a fantastic meal for us in the evening – including jelly and ice cream for dessert! The campsite had an undercover seating area where we sat for most of the night, drinking and talking about everything under the sun. Sometimes it’s the simple conversations you have on a trip which are the most memorable. With no phone signal and Wi-Fi, trips like these are often the most life changing as it’s easy to fall into the trap of spending all your time on your phone, which was pretty much impossible in this area. We watched the sunset as the familiar orange landscape slowly turned to black as the shadows crept across the desert. Being this remote, it meant that there was very little light pollution, meaning that the view of the stars above was one of the best I have ever seen. The temperature fell which made it very easy to fall asleep ready for another day of the road trip.

We waved a sad goodbye to the quaint campsite as we carried on the journey through the Namib Desert, heading towards Terrace Bay, where the desert and sand dunes meet the sea. The long drive took us a few hours to complete, passing only two vehicles during the whole morning! It’s hard to describe the level of pure isolation in these areas. Terrace Bay is the most northerly community on the Skeleton Coast – hundreds of miles away from tarmac roads, other towns and services. It is a somewhat surreal place which consists of a just a hostel and restaurant (used mainly by fishermen, rather than us tourists). It is so isolated that in order to enter the Skeleton Coast National Park, you must have a pre-existing reservation at a hotel. It truly is a beautiful place, with the bright Namibian sunshine alongside the constant wind from the Atlantic Ocean, the temperature is manageable, even in January, the hottest month in the country. The beaches are more or less untouched since they were created, nothing has changed here for millions of years. We arrived at Terrace Bay in the mid-afternoon, and decided to drive as far North as we could before sunset, just because we could. We drove a further 70km North along the coastal road (which wasn’t much of a road, rather a track of previous vehicles). Apart from a couple of fisherman’s vehicles, we didn’t pass anyone. After unintentionally ignoring some of the ‘do not pass’ signs, the track disappeared and we decided to head back. Turns out that the signs were to stop people from entering the areas as they are areas where diamonds are found – known as the forbidden zone…

We stuck close to the coast during the next day of the trip, where we drove 360km South to the charming city of Swakopmund. The road hugged the Skeleton Coast tightly which gave us plenty of opportunity for shipwreck spotting – oh yes, I should probably explain the meaning behind the name ‘Skeleton Coast’…  Historically, the region was known as “The Land God Made in Anger” by the local bushmen, and later being nicknamed “The Gates of Hell” by Portuguese sailors. Due to the climate, currents and other geographical features of the coastline, it is a deadly fate for ships as they are easily dragged ashore, but impossible to launch from the shore. Therefore, many shipmen have been stuck in the hot, arid desert, with limited access to the rest of the country. Today, the coastline is littered with shipwrecks and other abandoned places. They are difficult to spot as some of them have nearly been completely covered in sand but there are plenty to see if you keep your eyes peeled.

When looking for shipwrecks, we were looking out of the windows looking towards the beach, it wasn’t until we glanced over to realise that there was an abandoned structure further inland. Naturally, we drove up to it for a closer look, and to our surprise, we had stumbled upon a derelict and decaying oil rig, in the middle of the desert. We explored the rusty structure for an hour, with only meeting 3 other people! Many people don’t even notice this gem as they are too busy looking for shipwrecks, sometimes it’s important to look out for abandoned oil rigs too! There was absolutely no information at the site about what it was, so I did a bit of research afterwards to discover it was a drilling rig which was operational during the late 1960s, but looking at the condition of the structure, it puts the harsh climate of the Skeleton Coast into perspective as it looks much older than 50 years.

We spotted several shipwrecks, but again it wasn’t until afterwards, that I was able to research and discover what we truly had come across. The Dunedin Star was one of the first shipwrecks we found which was once a British refrigerated cargo passenger line, designed to ship frozen meat from Australia to the United Kingdom, but was also used in WW2. It was stranded in 1942 on the Skeleton Coast, fortunately the passengers and crew were rescued, but the ship itself was left to be buried beneath the sand. The majority of the ship has been buried and only a few parts remain visible. It is barely recognisable as a shipwreck so I’ve kindly included photos of what the ship once looked like, as well as what it looks like today.

The Zeila was definitely the best-preserved shipwreck we saw. The trawler was sold for scrap metal to an Indian company before it became stranded after it came loose from its towing line, when it was on its way to Bombay, India. This only occurred in 2008 so the ship is very much recognisable as a ship, unlike the majority of the other wrecks. It is now home to thousands of birds and is one of the most popular wrecks in the area. There were about ten other people on the beach when we arrived!

There are plenty of other parts of ships and cargo which litter the coastline, some parts are recognisable, some parts are completely unknown to where they came from and who they belonged to. Within a few years, these visible landmarks will be covered with sand and unlikely to be ever found again. This is a sad thought, but it’s also fascinating to speculate what kinds of ships are under the beaches on the Skeleton Coast. The visible ones are only from the last 100 years, so it is hard to comprehend how many ships met their fate on this unforgiving landscape that have been long forgotten.

We had a quick stop at Cape Cross, which was halfway through our journey for the day, where we stopped for some lunch. However, food wasn’t our main priority, the main reason for stopping at Cape Cross was to see the seal colony. The Cape Cross Seal Reserve is home to one of the largest colonies of Cape fur seals in the world. Unfortunately, it is also one of the main areas in Namibia where these seals are culled, for their hides but also to reduce their numbers to protect the fish stock. The seals themselves are incredibly noisy and smelly, the smell of warm, damp, and unfortunately some dead seals, as well as fish, filled the air as soon as we stepped out of the car. It was a rather spectacular place to see. Thousands of seals filled the beach and nearby ocean, the sound of them was almost deafening.

After the smell and sound of the seals became somewhat unbearable, we continued our journey South to Swakopmund. This place was the midpoint of our trip, a place where we could recharge our batteries, fill up the vehicle, wash some clothes and explore the populated areas of Namibia. We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the hotel and had an enormous seafood platter in the evening. Needless to say, we needed to do something adrenaline-pumping the next day to burn it off…

It seemed like an obvious choice to pick spending a couple of hours venturing 50km into the desert dunes on quad bikes. We sped around the quiet desert with a local tour company, Namibia Desert Explorers, which was the one of the best experiences I have had in my life. I hadn’t done much quad biking before but this certainly sparked an interest in it. It was a fantastic way to travel into the desert and get our hearts-racing as we sped around the dunes and even got the opportunity to drive down some of them, which certainly gave the feeling of being on a rollercoaster! If you ever find yourself in Swakopmund, Namibia – I would highly recommend doing this! Just remember that sun cream is essential, I was quite sunburnt afterwards, shock.

The rest of the day was spent exploring the picturesque town with its pretty lighthouse and popular beaches, which makes a difference to the harsh coastlines less than 10 miles away. We walked around and visited different sights and landmarks, the highlights being the pier, the beachside restaurants and the snake park, which was definitely a highlight. It is the largest collection of Namibia’s indigenous snakes, as well as other reptiles. The founder of the sanctuary, Mr Stretch, is always there and is happy to chat and answer any questions you may have!

We decided to go and visit the 3,500-hectare, man-made Walvis Bay salt pan complex the next day. These bizarre bright pink lakes supply 90% of Southern Africa’s salt but is also home to the thousands of similarly bright pink flamingos. Walvis Bay is like Swakopmund’s younger and more industrial brother. It is known mainly for its large seaport which is filled with international cargo ships. After having lunch overlooking the bustling commercial harbour, we headed back into the desert towards Sossusvlei.

The trip took us 330km into the mountains of the Namib Desert, crossing the Tropic of Capricorn before arriving in a small place called Solitaire. The ‘town’ consisted of a petrol station, wind mill water pump, shop, puncture repair shed and a bakery which sold the most wonderful apple pie! It was a beautiful place, a true gem in the middle of the desert! As we were queueing to buy the apple pies, I noticed a book for sale titled Solitaire. It was a book which explained how the town was founded and the story behind it all. Needless to say, I spent the entire flight home reading this book, but I wish I had read it before I went, so I could properly immerse myself in the town. However, the book is only sold in the town, so this would be difficult! The town was littered with old derelict cars, but I was more interested in the friendly cat I met in the restaurant, yet the strangest part of the town was the number of tourists we met, buses full! This was the first time on the entire trip where we had met this many tourists!

By the time we had left Solitaire and found ourselves at Dead Valley, our destination for the night, it was way beyond 40 degrees Celsius. It was a beautiful campsite, with permanent tents (with actual beds!), ice cold beer, views to die for, and a swimming pool, right in the middle of the desert. I became quite unwell at this point, I was unable to even walk from the tent to the hotel, even to the point where I fainted twice, falling into the sand! However, the staff were unbelievably helpful, as they pretty much carried me into the seating area, brought me cold towels for my head, and ensured I kept hydrated. I spent the rest of the afternoon laid in the shade of the seating area, looking out over the beautiful desert beyond. Fortunately, by the time tea was served in the restaurant, I was feeling a million times better! The chef started cooking over the open fire, with more food than was probably required for the 11 guests. We all ate as much as we could until we physically couldn’t have any more. The scraps and leftovers didn’t go to waste however, there were several black backed jackals, which had crept out of the dark desert, and were eagerly waiting nearby to finish it off.

At 4:30 the next morning, we decided to get up and walk up some of the dunes before the heat got unbearable – probably not a great idea after yesterday’s fainting episode but it was now or never, and I wasn’t wanting to let a bit of heat stroke stop me! It is a lot easier to climb dunes when it’s cold as the sand is harder so it is easier to grip and walk on, however once the sun rose, the sand instantly turned soft, making walking much more difficult. We climbed up Dune 45 which 85m high – now this doesn’t sound a lot, especially if you’re a hiker like me, however you’ve got to keep in mind that dune walking is significantly difficult due to the fact that you are walking on sand… Do I need to explain further? Either way, the views were worth the boots-full of sand! Dune 45 gave us an amazing panoramic view of the Dune Valley. The sun came up to reveal the views and the sunlight began to work its magic, creating thousands of shades of red all over the landscape. A new day had dawned over the historic desert.

Descending down the sand dune was significantly quicker and easier than walking up it, we skidded down in a matter of minutes before we came face to face with Deadvlei which is a white clay pan with the contrasting dark, dead camel thorn trees. These trees are estimated to be over 900 years old, and haven’t decomposed due to the dry climate of the Namib Naukluft region, another bizarre yet fascinating landmark of the Namibian deserts.

One of my favourite things about Namibia is the abundance of wildlife that is free to roam the deserts and hostile landscapes, as they have done for millions of years, with little human interference. It isn’t uncommon to see an ibex, zebra or even a giraffe wandering around in the distance, completely free – no National Park gates, no large fences keeping them in certain areas, they have complete freedom. It is one of the only places in the world where I have seen truly wild animals, not in a national park, roaming free – living how they were supposed to before humans arrived and changed the planet. Wild animals are truly a beautiful sight to see.

We quickly dashed back to the camp for a shower to wash away the sand before starting the 360km journey to Aus. Before we arrived in Aus, we came across a beautiful sight – the first tarmac road since Swakopmund! After driving for two days on rocky dirt tracks, the tarmac road was a blessing. Aus was a small town with a hotel, a railway station of sorts, and not much else…

After a terribly warm nights sleep, we were ready for our final part of the trip, and the part I’ve been looking forward to the most. Kolmanskop Ghost Town. Once the sand was cleared from the main road, we continued through the desert all the way to the deserted mining community and ghost town of Kolmanskop, which has been abandoned since the 1950s. The temperature hit its hottest temperature since we arrived, 43 degrees! Fortunately, the freedom to explore the ghost town took my mind off the blistering heat.

The fascinating history of Kolmanskop started when a railway worker found a diamond whilst working in the area. The German miners soon realised that the area was particularly rich in diamonds and began the settlement. The town was incredibly wealthy from the diamond mines, so the town expanded further, built in a German architectural style, the town had a hospital, ballroom, power station, school, bowling alley, theatre, sports-hall, casino and an x-ray station – which was the first x-ray station in the entire Southern hemisphere, as well as being home to the first tram in Africa. The town initially started to decline during the Second World War where the diamond field began to deplete, which led to it being ultimately being abandoned in 1956. The brutal forces of the desert mean that the houses are now nearly filled with sand, which are gradually reclaiming the once thriving town. Kolmanskop has been used as a movie set in many films and documentaries, and is very popular among photographers. As from the photos below, you can see why:

This beautifully eerie town marked our final stop of the road trip before a long drive back to Windhoek. A truly life changing trip in terms of perspective, when you’re in the desert, there’s not a lot to concentrate on except yourself, which really does lead to some life changing realisations. As well as having an absolute blast, I can safely say that Namibia is one of my favourite countries. It is quirky and fascinating, it’s not a popular destination but it deserves recognition for being incredibly beautiful, having the most wonderful people and truly being a place that people can escape to, in order to find themselves. Sometimes I think back to the nights in the Namib desert, and I can visualise myself being there, somewhere where I felt completely at home. I think I did leave a part of my heart in Namibia, who can blame me, right?

Until we meet again, thank you Namibia.