Namibia By Land Rover
In May 2023, Next Adventure’s Marketing Director Jeremy Townsend, spent 12 days with a friend self-driving through Namibia’s vast northwestern territory.
They drove a 1998 Land Rover V8 from Swakopmund up the seemingly endless Skeleton Coast through the wild Hoanib Valley and across the stunning terrain of Damaraland.
Namibia holds an almost mythical place in the minds of curious travelers. It is known for vast unpopulated landscapes, rugged desolate coasts, fossil river valleys, soaring dunes, fascinating desert-adapted wildlife and striking traditional cultures.
Jeremy describes it as one of the most moving and powerful travel experiences he’s ever had. The overwhelming sense of scale and geologic change provokes deep philosophical musings. The scarcity of wildlife in these inhospitable habitats makes the precious sightings all the more incredible. Here, it’s not the huge herds and abundance that impresses us, but the sheer persistence and survival of individual animals that seems beyond belief.
While some of the drives can be long, they are never tiresome. Moving overland between these areas feels like a true journey, chasing the horizon through an ever changing landscape that just keeps reminding you how small you (and your everyday worries) are.
Namibia is elemental. It is the ancient stuff of life pared down to the basics and laid out in stark contrast: sand and stone, sun and surf, wind and water, life and death. Namibia is evocative. It is full of wonder, asking big questions and answering with very simple truths: impatience kills, water is life, and we’ll all get further by working together.
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Namibia Trip Report
Drive from Swakopmund to Skeleton Coast
This has to be one of the most epic drives in the world. From the charming seaside German town of Swakopmund with its breweries, schnitzels and strudels, the drive up the Skeleton Coast hugs the shoreline where the cold South Atlantic Benguela Current slams into arid desolate dunes. The coast is littered with 100 years of shipwrecks, strange histories, and every variation of nothingness.
Shipwreck Lodge and Dune Riding on Skeleton Coast
Accommodations are few and far between on the Skeleton Coast. Shipwreck Lodge is a truly extraordinary place with a striking design and lots of fun activities like cruising the dunes on ATVs, walking through the wild coastal dunes, game drives in search of the elusive brown hyena, dune surfing and just watching time slip away from the deck.
Drive through the Hoarusib River Valley to Hoanib Valley Camp
This was an unforgettable day seeing the landscape change from the powdery dunes through the rugged ancient riverbeds and the lush canyons to the Mars-like plateau at sunrise and onward across endless stretches of gravel and rock to the life-giving Hoanib River Valley. Here we saw a family of desert-adapted elephants with a 2 week old baby and a lone lioness on a stealthy hunt of an oryx.
Drive to Damaraland
Reminiscent of the American Southwest, this area delivers incredible scenery, unusual rock formations, the biggest sunsets and the opportunity to visit the Twyfelfontein rock art.
Okonjima
For our last stop, we visited one of the most successful predator conservation programs in Africa. Okonjima is a private conservation area, a sanctuary for big cats as well as plentiful wildlife including rare brown hyena and pangolins, and it is home to the Africat Foundation which runs research and environmental educational projects for neighboring communities and farmers.