I recently returned from two amazing weeks in Namibia. The scenery is easily comparable to highlights of some of America's most spectacular
southwestern landscapes. It has massive sand dunes, buttes, broad valleys, and canyons. On top of that, they've got ghost towns from over
a century of diamond mining and nearly all the classic African animals that people often think of (lions, cheetahs, rhinos, elephants, etc), which adds
an extra layer of awesome. Then because Namibia is twice the size of California, yet only has about 2 million people, much of the country is
wide open, empty, undeveloped space, so the scenery is rarely spoiled by anything. The road system is excellent, with a mixture of paved & gravel
roads, which are well maintained & frequently graded. I rented a 4x4 Toyota Hilux (basically the rest of the world's version of the Tacoma), and
drove nearly 3000 miles.

I don't have status with any airline, as 99% of my travel is self-funded. As a result, I flew economy the entire way. I flew Virgin Atlantic from SFO to LHR,
then LHR to JNB (both flights were B787-9). Overall, it was a good experience. Flights departed & arrived on time, food was decent, seats were
reasonably comfortable, and the crews were professional & competent. The remaining 2 hours of flying from JNB to WDH were on Air Namibia (A319). This
was also a fairly decent experience, and even included a full meal.

But enough rambling, I'll let the photos speak for themselves.



Quiver trees at Fish River Canyon


Bogenfels


Cape Cross pup


Little Vlei


bath time


Solitude


last tree


Sesriem Canyon


Sperrgebiet (restricted zone)


Vingerklip


Vingerklip view


Oryx foragers


Descent into the canyon


Red sand, red road


Fish River overlook


Jackal


Fish River Canyon, the 2nd largest on earth


entering the slot


Hunting for the kill


Kolmanskopp


On the prowl


Ranchland


Dunes at dawn


Garub station


The void


home of the welwitschia


Sperrgebiet view


not rush hour


shy


no limits


bowling in 1909


the Namib reclaims all


jump!


ohai


Deadvlei


elephant x-ing


empty


whatchu lookin at?


sand room


Fish river canyon


The king (Etosha National Park)


me and a lot of salt


For the curious, I've posted over 700 photos from the trip HERE,
and I've written up a detailed day by day trip report (with gpx log) HERE.

Excellent shots and spectacular country, love going there so different from my home in the winelands of the Cape.

Wow at the fantastic photos you took!!!

Those are fantastic pictures. I loved the clarity of each and particularly enjoyed the one of the lion bathing herself.

What was your route and how did you travel? Did you self-drive? What was the temperature this time of year?

Very interesting landscapes!

Fantastic pictures. I noted all the places you went to as I want to go.

Saw Air Namibia planes in Cape Town and JBurg going to Wallis Bay and Windhoek.

You went in October? Was it very hot and humid or OK?

Some amazing pictures - Thank you!! It really is a country with some amazing vistas.

Great pictures! Glad you had a sweet trip

Looks like a wonderful adventure, thank you for sharing

Amazing photos, netllama!

Such desolate but so very beautiful landscapes.

A country very high on my list to visit now.

I used to live there and you have captured the true flavor of the landscapes. Thanks for your post.

Fabulous photos! Brings back very happy memories of an amazing time I spent driving around there in a 12 year old VW Jetta back in the late 90s. Despite lacking 4WD I was amazed by how many places we could still easily reach on those wide sand/dirt/gravel roads.

How much did you find you needed the 4WD, out of interest?

Such a great country with so many photo opportunities.

Thanks for taking the time and effort to post.

Only once, when driving through the deep sand out to Deadvlei. Generally speaking the roads are in fairly good condition for the most part.

Roughly speaking, this was the route that I drove.

Other than when I was less than 5km from the coast, it was quite hot just about everywhere (over 30C during the day). It did cool down in the evenings though, with a breeze in most places.