My mom, a friend and I just finished up a 16-day self-drive trip around Namibia. The whole thing went amazingly well, Namibia being much better set up for tourism than I would have expected. The roads (while mostly gravel) were well maintainted; signage was excellent throughout, even on minor roads (SA could learn from the Namibians here); corruption was nonexistent; and the lodges were uniformly excellent.

We flew into WDH from JNB on SA, picked up an Avis 4x4, and stayed our first night at the amazingly nice (for an emerging market) Hilton Windhoek. I was expecting this hotel to be tatty and old, but it was either new or newly refurbished, and extremely comfortable. The next morning we stocked up on provisions and drove to Swakopmund, passing through the "moon landscape" and Welwitschia flats area along the way.

In Swakop we stayed at the Hotel Zum Kaiser, which was fine, although we were dismayed to learn that they had screwed up our booking and walked us for the second night to the Europa Hof (much less desirable). That was the only negative moment in all of our nights in the country, though, so it's hard to complain much. Swakop in May was dead as a doornail but we had an amazingly great time kayaking at the Pelican Point seal colony in Walvis Bay--highly recommended. From there we drove to a succession of lodges: Mowani Mountain Camp, Desert Rhino Camp, Okahirongo Elephant Lodge, Grootberg Lodge, and Okonjima Lodge. All of these were just great, and each had a different focus for game viewing and a different landscape.

In general the countryside is stunning, with desert landscapes that seem to change every few minutes as you drive through the country. The isolation, lack of human habitation, clear and immense skies, and general unspoiled-ness are just amazing. Also, in contrast to South Africa and many other countries, in Namibia conservation of wildlife is a nationwide endeavor, not confined to national parks and preserves. You are more or less guaranteed to see things like ostriches, oryx, springbok, etc. roaming anywhere you drive, and there are even elephants and big cats around. In general, modern Namibia seems to be doing an excellent job of rebuilding its natural heritage after decades of poaching and over-hunting that nearly destroyed wildlife populations. It is working well.

If anyone would like more detail on the trip, I'm happy to provide it.