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Namibia With the Kids
Welcome to my first-ever trip report! Thanks for clicking; I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to leave either encouragement or discouragement as may be warranted so that I can create better reports in the future. I will warn you in advance that this report will be fairly heavy on text.
I'm no stranger to world travelling, but after reading some very entertaining reports on FT in the past several years I decided that last year’s family trip to Namibia would be the perfect opportunity to wade into the creation of my own reports. This report won’t focus too much on flights, for reasons that I won’t get into, but will be mostly destination-focused, covering some highlights from the 9 wonderful days we spent road tripping around Namibia. But first, let’s meet the cast of characters who are likely, nay guaranteed, to appear: dfw88 – Your host on this journey who, sadly, thinks he’s much wittier than he actually is. Mrs. dfw88 – Wonderful wife of your host, borderline narcoleptic, adventurous, good sport about everything except snakes. Mini dfw88 #1, aka “the Engineer” – oldest child of dfw88, elementary-school aged, precocious, analytical, often too smart for his own good. Mini dfw88 #2, aka “the Observer” – middle child of dfw88, not quite in school yet, outrageously silly but also empathetic; notices and remembers everything he sees. Mini dfw88 #3, aka “the Anarchist” – youngest child of dfw88, just barely not a toddler anymore, doesn’t believe in rules, directions, or instructions from any source, basically just does his own thing. This report will be divided into five parts:
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b3810f7620.jpg Namibia's one of those places where you can make the shape with your hand. Michigan people know what I'm talking about. |
Part 1: The Getting There Part
Namibia isn’t the easiest place to get to from the US. Frankly, it isn’t easy to get to from anywhere, including other parts of Namibia, but we’ll get to that later. Namibia is the 139th most populous country on earth (putting it about 70% of the way down the list, depending on what you count as a country) and the second-least-densely populated country (only Mongolia has fewer people per square mile/kilometer), meaning that there just isn’t a whole lot of demand for air travel and what does exist is spread out over a relatively large land area, meaning it’s impractical to capture for most airlines. To get there from the US you have basically three options:
We decided to take Ethiopian Airlines on the way over. Due to bad weather back home, we ended up needing to leave a day early and do an odd connection, involving a one-way rental car and an overnight stay with family, but eventually we ended up at Washington Dulles Airport on the correct morning. The line was long at the check-in counter, which we needed to wait in for reasons, but we enjoyed the people watching. The number of bags checked per person was surely higher than any other flight we’ve ever boarded, except for maybe Miami to Havana, which slowed the line down to a crawl. Fortunately, the kids could enjoy the Lego model of the airport on display while I waited. The staff were friendly and relatively efficient and eventually we were on our way to the gate, after a brief stop at the Capital One lounge, which was rather annoying to find and more than slightly labyrinthine once inside. That said, the breakfast was solid and much appreciated. Once at the gate, boarding was by row numbers, which I like, though Flyertalk assures me that I only like it because I’m an unimportant plebe with no status, and Flyertalk is never wrong. Our team of five was positioned across two rows in the back middle section of ET’s 787-9 Dreamliner, right in front of the three rows that were reserved for flight attendant rest. Also occupying the rear of the plane were 100 other small children (plus or minus) who spent the duration of the flight performing a high-pitched screaming opera, probably loosely based on Aida, but I admit I had trouble following the lyrics. As a parent of perfectly behaved children (this is a joke, to be clear) I was grateful for some good earplugs so I could get some sleep. Ethiopian provides a tiny amenity kit in economy, notable only because my children immediately put on, then refused to remove, the formless, mustard-yellow tube socks that were far too big for them. The pillow was typical for economy class, though the blanket seemed bigger than usual, which was appreciated. The flight left in the late morning, so we stayed awake for the first half and tried to sleep the second half to do some jetlag pre-adjustment. The food was fairly tasty for economy class, there was a good selection of entertainment, and we arrived in one piece and on time, so really, we didn’t have anything to complain about. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...2e0c214358.jpg The view from the back. On arrival at ADD we parked at a remote stand. It seems like they could’ve deplaned from both the back and front without too much trouble, but decided to use only the front doors, which took twice as long to get everyone off and onto a conga line of buses. The transit experience at ADD is a bit of a mess, but it’s an efficient mess, which I realize is an oxymoron, but it’s also true, so we easily found our way to the gate for our flight to Windhoek (WDH) during our 1.5-hour layover. We had the boarding passes for our second flight, which are technically required to transit without entering the country, but no one, not even at the quick security checkpoint, asked to see them. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4afd52d008.jpg Loading onto the bus at ADD The clientele on this second flight was rather different: primarily European and no other children. We had an actual jet bridge to board our 787-8, which made things easy and efficient. The flight was about 6 hours long, but the flight attendants handed out children’s entertainment pouches during boarding, which kept the kids busy playing the whole time and me busy fishing small puzzle pieces out of the cracks between the seats. While I appreciated the gesture and most of the contents, who thought a jigsaw puzzle was the right thing to include on a potentially bumpy plane ride? I tried my hardest to see Kilimanjaro out the window, but it was either too cloudy or we didn’t pass quite close enough. The flight was largely empty and was actually pretty empty the entire week we traveled. It seems like this would be a great 737 route for ET, but the elevation at ADD means that the narrowbody wouldn’t have the range so they use their smallest widebody instead. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f94c68b445.jpg WDH, definitely a new airport for me After an easy flight we were finally on the ground in Namibia. We waited in line for about an hour at immigration, before being lectured by a border guard for travelling without our children’s birth certificates. The conversation went something like this: Her: “You always need birth certificates to travel internationally with your children.” Me (in my mind): “Really? Because I’ve never ever brought them with me once and my kids have 30 passport stamps apiece, so I don’t think so.” Me (out loud): “Yes ma’am” Her: “You better get a copy while you’re here or else you won’t be able to leave.” Me (in my mind): “Sure, like you wouldn’t let us leave.” Me (out loud): “Yes ma’am” Spoiler alert: No one even mentioned them when we left. Finally, we met up with our rental car company’s representative and started our vacation. We picked up a local SIM card, which proved very useful for the data alone, then drove into town to the rental car office. The airport is quite far from town, which doesn’t really make sense when looking at the map, unless you’re looking at a topo map. The airport is in one of the only flat spots big enough for it within a reasonable drive, so the thirty minutes to town is understandable. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9c17a878c1.jpg Friendly reminder from the rental car company not to drive at night. If you do that in the eastern US you may hit a deer. If you do that in Namibia you may hit something much bigger. (Note: this was not our car. This was one they were working on while we were signing the paperwork) |
Part 2: The Animal Part
We rented a Toyota Hilux for our trip, the preferred vehicle of terrorists worldwide (if you don’t get that joke, just Google “Hilux terrorist car” and see how many results there are). The truck bed, which had a lockable cover over it, was full of camping gear and there were two tents on top that we folded out over the side of the truck when we stopped for the night. The tents had a reasonable mattress pad in them and we provided the other bedding ourselves. It was a great set-up for our family. Little boys like nothing better than sleeping on top of the car. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...099983a158.jpg A view of the camping set up. The tents are folded out of the other side of the car. However, we spent our first night in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, in a nice Airbnb, and thus had no need of tents. We enjoyed driving around town, past the National Council and Tintenpalast (government buildings), past the Independence Museum (designed and built by a North Korean company (not a joke)), visited the famous Christuskirche, saw the Gibeon meteorites, and enjoyed a viewpoint of town. Downtown Windhoek seemed fine. It doesn’t have the safest reputation, but we had no problems, though we went in right around the time it got dark. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...706d989583.jpg Panorama of Windhoek https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0d7c8836a1.jpg The Christuskirche, in the middle of a round-a-bout in downtown Windhoek. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...86917f19f4.jpg The Independence Museum. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9c8b45cfd6.jpg The Gibeon Meteorites, proudly displayed in downtown Windhoek. The next morning, we headed north toward Waterberg Plateau. But first: Namibia has a lot of variation in road quality and lots of things about a road trip there depend on the roads one is driving. At the very basic level it should say something that our rental car, which, again, was a car made for the rough roads of Kandahar, came with not one but two spare tires. Within Namibia, the A roads are modern-style freeways. There aren’t many of them. B roads are (typically) two-lane paved roads, generally of good quality. C roads are either dirt or, along the coast, salt roads. These are generally pretty good but can get really corrugated (in parts of the US we call these “washboards”) if they haven’t been graded in a while. Most of the ones we drove had not been graded in a while. The D roads cover a wide range of quality – some were not much worse than C, others were very rough. I didn’t see any E roads, but I did see the turnoff for a few F roads while we were driving, nearly all of which were gated, as if to say “no, tourist, this is not the road you’re looking for”. I can only imagine how rough they must be. The quality varies so much that lots of rental companies give instructions for adjusting your tire pressure based on the road you’re driving on. They encourage you to let out the pressure by as much as 25% when driving on dirt roads, then provide a compressor to fill them back up when you get back on the pavement. I’m told that there are places on earth where that’s common, but this was a first for me. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f484f33d1e.jpg A pretty typical C road out in the middle of nowhere, which is most of everywhere. But on to Waterberg. The Waterberg Plateau is a red-cliff outcropping that rises out of north-central Namibia. There’s a national reserve with a campground on its southern edge. When we checked-in we were given explicit instructions to camp on a specific side of the campground so we wouldn’t have any problems with the baboons. All righty, then – welcome to Africa! There was even a park ranger with a slingshot patrolling camp to make sure they didn’t stir up any trouble. We did, however, see a huge troop of them when we went to start our hike up the plateau. Fortunately, they wanted trouble even less than we did (which was already a very low level of trouble-wanting) and wandered off, loudly, possibly even more loudly than my children, who can drown out a Rolls-Royce jet engine test if they really want to say something, and they always really want to say something. The hike up the plateau was short and very fun. Young kids are often lukewarm on hiking, but nearly universally love climbing on rocks. Most of the hike was on rocks, so they were all-in. The Engineer wanted his picture taken on top of every rock, which we usually obliged. The Observer was happy as long as he was in the front. The Anarchist did an incredibly good job hiking compared to the length of his stubby legs but ended up needing to be carried near the end. The views from the top were fantastic, as you can see below. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...13acd44781.jpg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...82f585bc2d.jpg The campground itself was fairly basic, with a nice flat parking area (essential to getting a good night’s sleep on the roof) a picnic table, and a nice set of restrooms with running water. We weren’t the only ones there, but we were among the few, which made for a quiet evening. The next day we made a pit stop in Otjiwarongo to see the Nile crocodiles. There are no crocodiles in that part of the county because there’s no water (there’s no water in the vast majority of the country), but in the far northeast there are some areas that are wet enough for crocs to survive. The animals we saw lived on a farm that holds a mere 2,500 of them, with most being raised for meat and leather and some being used for breeding. The tour was interesting; I won’t bore you with all the details I learned, but merely mention two things:
I realize there's no scale, so you'll have to trust me that these creatures were massive. Another few hours of driving brought us to Etosha National Park, the popular self-drive safari location of Namibia. Unlike in some countries, Namibia actually built a reasonable set of dirt roads through their national parks so adventurous visitors can drive themselves on safari (to be fair, it’s a lot easier to build a road in the desert than in the bush). While guided and professional safaris exist, they aren’t required. This was a huge selling point for us, since we didn’t know what kind of attention span the kids would have for hours of driving during the day. We ended up doing a day and a half of safari, the half day being after we arrived and the mostly full day the day after. The park is based around the Etosha pan, an extensive salt flat a hundred kilometers long and half as wide. During the dry season its watering holes provide the only moisture for miles around. Hence, most visitors drive from watering hole to watering hole, looking for animals that have come for a drink. Fortunately for us, there were critters everywhere. During our time there we saw plenty of elephants, dozens of giraffes, lots of ostriches, a handful of lions, myriads of oryxes, several hartebeest, troops of kudu, and hundreds of zebras, wildebeests, and springboks. The kids loved it. The Engineer and the Observer understood how neat it was to see animals in their native habitat while the Anarchist probably thought we were in an oversized zoo, but still enjoyed himself. The lions were definitely the highlight, as we saw three of them lazing around one evening. The only large animals we missed were the cheetah and the rhinoceros, though not for lack of trying. We camped just outside the park at the Etosha Trading Post. This campsite was quite nice and featured a large, walled-in, and covered cooking area and bathroom at each site, complete with warm water. We had similar set-ups at a few campsites and really appreciated the space and the chance to scrub dirt off our kids, who are, like most children, basically dirt magnets. That evening we actually ate out for dinner, one of the few times we did that on the trip (there aren’t many restaurants in the middle of nowhere). One of the nearby campsites had a restaurant where they served wild game, including many of the animals that we had seen that day, such as springbok, oryx, kudu, and hartebeest. The Engineer will try anything, which makes him fun to travel with, as he had us all rank the game in order of which we preferred as part of his thorough analysis. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...db4884273c.jpg A herd of zebras https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f6716eed7b.jpg I apologize for the zoom quality, but that's a lioness sleeping under a bush https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...688f5ef581.jpg More zoom issues, but some wildebeest and zebras at a watering hole https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...823aa6dc40.jpg The Anarchist's favorite animal, an elephant just chilling by the road https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...451f0bb8b7.jpg The Engineer's favorite animal, a giraffe. Since you were about to ask, the Observer's favorite animal is the penguin, which do live in Namibia, but we didn't make it to that part of the coast. |
Part 3: The Coast Part
Following our fantastic safari days we headed for the coast, with a rest stop in Damaraland. Damaraland is home to Namibia’s first (of two) UNESCO world heritage sites, the Twyfelfontein, or /Ui-//aes petroglyphs. These well-preserved rock carvings represent one of the largest sets of petroglyphs in Africa. The extensive carvings cover several thousand years and functioned both as maps and teaching tools for the people who made them as well as a means of worship, with many featuring the religiously important giraffe and rhinoceros. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7e1e6762db.jpg One small portion of the rock carvings Did you catch the slashes in that name above? … Following that, we dropped by the Damaraland Living History Museum. The government of Namibia sponsors about 10 of these museums throughout the country, each focused on a different indigenous tribe. These multifunctional museums serve as repositories of native knowledge, tourist attractions, and revenue-generating opportunities for local tribes. If you’ve ever visited the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii, it’s basically the Namibian version of that. Members of the local tribe, the Damara in this case, dress in traditional outfits and give demonstrations of various cultural traditions. These include dances, fire making, clothing production, arts and crafts, hunting, medicine, etc. It’s a bit cheesy and too tourist-centric for me, but I do appreciate the effort to preserve and showcase cultures that are at risk of extinction in our hyper-global modern society. Plus, the kids loved it. The most fascinating part for me, by far, was listening to them speak to each other. Those slashes in the name of the area are a (rather poor) representation in English of the clicking sounds for which the Khoisan languages of southern Africa are so famous. Listening to native speakers talk to each other (probably about us, but whatevs) was amazing. I caught at least a half dozen different types of click sounds; there were probably tons more that my ear couldn’t distinguish. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f3c71cc504.jpg A couple of locals showing us how to make fire https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5e72f623e0.jpg The inside of the Living History Museum. No one actually lives here these days. We spent that night in a campsite that wasn’t yet finished, which I realize is an odd thing to say, especially since Flyertalkers love ultra-luxury hotels. It was a campsite, after all, so many would argue that it cannot possibly be finished as it will forever lack walls and a roof. But even as campsites go, it wasn’t yet finished. They were still in the process of building the bathrooms so in the meantime they had strung some curtains on some poles behind a massive boulder, forming two “stalls”, one for a toilet and one for a shower, and called it good. They were even so kind as to light the fire underneath the hot water heater, as in, literally light some wood on fire to heat up the big black boiler-type thing that functioned as a hot water heater, so we could clean a layer of dirt off the kids. The water never actually got warmer than ambient temperature, but it’s the thought that counts. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d3ea20c99c.jpg An unfinished campground... https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c059803e14.jpg ... and its fire-warmed hot water heater. The next morning, we set out for the stretch of coast known as the Skeleton Coast. At least, today it's called the Skeleton Coast. Fortunately, unless you're a cetacean, that name refers not to human bones but to the whale bones that litter this 600-mile stretch of largely forgotten, barely inhabited coastline from the Angolan border south through much of Namibia. Before gaining its English name, The Portuguese called the area "as areias do inferno" - the sands of Hell. During the great age of exploration, following the lead of Prince Henry the Navigator, the Portuguese explored and mapped huge swathes of the earth's surface. As they journeyed around the Horn of Africa their ships wound up grounded on this coast with shocking regularity. The winds, waves, fog, and currents seemed to pull ships in, closer and closer to shore, and refused to let them go once within their grip. Once shipwrecked, the Portuguese sailors knew their days were numbered as rescue was next to impossible. Today, hundreds of shipwrecks litter these beaches, some hundreds of years old, others more recent. Many of the most famous are nearly impossible to reach today and would have been even more impossible in previous decades. Before the Portuguese, the traditional Damara people called this area "the land God made in anger" in reference to the stark inhospitable conditions. Even those hardy desert-dwellers found the land too desolate to spend much time here. For centuries, at least, humans have been terrified by this stretch of coastline. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...84ac81eeb7.jpg Before you can even drive here you have to fill out some paperwork acknowledging the risks and telling them where you're going in case they need to rescue you. I have no idea why such a place has fascinated me for so long. Ever since I heard about it, many years ago, I'd wanted to come. Indeed, the impetus for this trip was this part of the drive. There are shorter drives through the stunning wasteland, but we took the long road on purpose. It is stark. It is desolate. It is inhospitable. And it is hauntingly beautiful. I loved every minute of the long drive, from the mountain pass that wound down from Twyfelfontein to the salt road stretching for hundreds of kilometers along the coast. For most of the day we had the blue crashing breakers on our right and a mix of sandy flatland, rolling sandy hills, and steep cliffs on our left, with the red mountains in the distance. It was breathtaking. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...74ec58625a.jpg Nothing for miles around We made several stops along the way, all of which the kids loved. We stopped at an abandoned diamond processing facility, with supports for a long-gone pier stretching from the remnants of a cluster of buildings out to the edge of the water. We also stopped at an abandoned oil rig, now, thanks to the shifting sands, located 200 meters inland, its once tall derrick toppled and rusting in the sand. Our final stop was the wreck of the Banguela Eagle, a wooden ship, wrecked on the shore decades ago, its 12 cylinder engine block and wooden ribs left sticking out of the sand. Nearby, through some slightly-macabre, yet poetic, coincidence, was a massive whale skull, washed up on shore, staring ruefully at the wreck through empty eye sockets. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4b00266c0f.jpg The piers of the old diamond mining facility https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6d6c426594.jpg The old diamond facility itself https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c1edbe34b3.jpg The collapsed oil derrick https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...40e8ba8f8e.jpg The rusting engine of the Benguela Eagle https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...775e785231.jpg The wreck of the Benguela Eagle, from a distance, with a whale skull for good measure. We slept that night at Cape Cross. Originally put on the map by the Portuguese, who landed, intentionally this time, several hundred years ago and placed a cross on this spit of land jutting into the South Atlantic, today it’s known to Skeleton Coast travelers for two things: the only accommodations for a hundred miles in any direction and seals. Just down the road from our campsite was the famous Cape Cross Nature Reserve seal colony. Supported by the ocean which, in contrast to the barren land, is fertile and full of life, this colony of seals is easily several thousand strong. From the boardwalk, which was even hard to get to because seals were blocking most of its entrances, the beach and waves were teeming with black bodies and the air was full of a cacophony of sounds, from playful barks and chirps to angry bellows and hisses. There were dozens of pups, likely born just a few months before, drinking milk and playing, all while the adults constantly rotated out of the surf to laze on the rocks and dry off. We loved it. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0c12b992ed.jpg Thousands of seals https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bba14bffec.jpg A few seals up close Finally, we made it to our campsite at the Cape Cross Lodge, a semi-circular cluster of buildings with a campground in the middle. On the way back from letting the kids burn off some energy at the playground, Mrs. dfw88 noticed a posting on the bathroom door warning everyone about a young hyena that had been spotted (get it? The hyena was spotted?) around the lodge recently and providing some safety tips. The boys, not fully sure of what a hyena is, began asking lots of questions. Can it climb the ladders to our tents? Can it break down the bathroom door? And so on. After helping the boys shower, I carried them back to camp one at a time so they wouldn't get their feet dirty all over again. I took the Anarchist first, left him with Mrs. dfw88, and went back for the Observer. As I arrived back at camp the second time, I heard Mrs. dfw88, whose Master’s degree in biology undoubtedly came in handy here, respond to an unheard-by-me question from the Anarchist by saying: "they don't have lightsabers... they're hyenas". That’s kids for you. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...32451cbb60.jpg The very photogenic wreck of the Zeila https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9e89ae59c0.jpg A closer look |
Part 4: The Sand Part
After a few days of being solidly outside of civilization it was a bit of a system shock to hit Swakopmund the following day. An actual, real city, Swakopmund felt both comfy and sketchy all at the same time. We had a relaxing day at the beach and camped near the south end of town at the Tiger Reef Campsite before setting off for Walvis Bay the following morning. Walvis Bay (pronounced, obviously, “VALL-fish”) is the substantially bigger of the only two ports found in Namibia, a break along the Skeleton Coast where ships can safely harbor. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bd009a97ed.jpg German colonial architecture of Swakopmund https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6a325d2fea.jpg Edge of Walvis Bay, full of flamingos We had a fun excursion planned that morning as we met our driver, Jako, and piled into his car for a trip to Sandwich Harbour. Sandwich Harbour isn’t really a harbor at all, but a bay a number of miles south of Walvis Bay through the sand dunes. Jako, being a professional, was far less likely to get stuck in loose sand than we were, so we opted to rely on his expertise instead of making the drive ourselves. We made several stops along the way, viewing the flamingos, taking in the pink lakes of drying salt, finding desert lizards buried in the sand, and looking at the tiny gemstones that get deposited along the shore by the diamond mining companies further south. Finally, we made it to the dunes where we were treated to an exceptionally fun drive, along with spectacular view of the harbor, framed by dunes, hundreds of feet high, crashing down into the ocean. Simply put, this was one of the most spectacular views I’ve ever seen my life. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c555773d0b.jpg Pink runoff from the pink salt-producing lakes of Walvis Bay https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f702dc1ad6.jpg The dunes https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...1fff856c37.jpg My photos cannot possibly do this justice. Sandwich Harbour is one of the most fantastic views I've seen in my life. Thousand-foot dunes dropping into the ocean. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bdc16f4d0f.jpg A panorama of Sandwich Harbour Once back in the car we did some dune cruising, which amounted to Jako using the dunes like a roller coaster. I promise some of the sand faces we drove down were approaching a 45-degree angle. However, with a professional at the steering well it all went swimmingly. We took a brief lunch break, which allowed the boys to “bum slide” down the dunes, which they loved, before heading back to Walvis Bay, hopping in our car, and heading out of town. Our next destination was Soussusvlei, an area of Namib-Nauklauft National Park known for even more stunning dunes. Technically, Sandwich Harbor is in the same park, so this drive consisted of driving around the perimeter of this massive park for a few hours so we could access the inland side the following day. The drive itself was gorgeous, including driving through a mountain pass and across the Tropic of Capricorn, a popular photo spot. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...aac9a2f17c.jpg Mountain passes https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4beee7cb7e.jpg The sticker-covered Tropic of Capricorn sign. We added one of our own (aviation-themed of course!). The town of Sesriem, at the entrance to the park, is essentially a collection of lodges and campgrounds for those visiting the park. There really isn’t much else there. We stayed at the Sossus Oasis Camp Site and again enjoyed having a personal kitchen area and bathroom right at our campsite. The following morning, we set out for Soussusvlei, about a 40-minute drive into the national park. This area of Namibia is famous for its stunning reddish-orange dunes, some of which tower over the surrounding landscape. The pavement ends a few miles before the most famous set of dunes, but a set of drivers in safari trucks await you to drive the last little bit to the hiking spots. The ride was absurdly bumpy, though I’m not convinced the driver wasn’t doing that on purpose to make the kids squeal in delight. We stopped partway there to push a car out of the deep, soft sand. Someone had clearly overestimated their ability to drive in those conditions. Once at the parking area we headed for Deadvlei, probably the most photographed spot in Namibia. The story here is quite interesting. Apparently, about 1,000 years ago the local river shifted course for unknown reasons. This caused the area to desert-ify in a short amount of time. The trees died, but it was too dry for them to decompose, so they just sit there. Obviously, something like that can’t possibly be recreated, so there are rather threatening signs warning tourists not to hurt the trees. Despite the crowds, not huge compared to the Trevi Fountain or something like that, but much larger than we’d seen elsewhere in Namibia, one could wander far enough away to find some solitude. The landscape was breathtaking, with the white ground, red-orange dunes, gray trees, and blue sky all complementing each other perfectly. We decided to hike up Big Daddy Dune for a look down at Deadvlei. The dune towers 1,000 feet above the valley and was probably more than we should’ve bitten off with the kids. It took us longer than expected, though we weren’t in any rush. The Anarchist even managed to fall asleep while being given a piggy-back ride, so we succeeded (for once) in wearing him out. The views from the top were spectacular, with dunes and valleys in all directions. After taking in the vista, we slid down the dune, making much better time than coming up (obviously…). The advantage of taking a long time to get up was that Deadvlei was nearly, well, dead, by the time we made it down, which gave us the opportunity to snap some photos without anyone around. Take that Instagram influencers! Finally, we made our way back to the safari truck shuttle to head back to our campsite. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b44b425cf8.jpg View of Dune 45 on the way in. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5f2c97e8cc.jpg Deadvlei https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...02dab22751.jpg Deadvlei from closer https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9e70135fae.jpg Deadvlei again https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5656c73fa0.jpg View of Deadvlei from the top of Big Daddy Dune. You can see the dead trees in the distance. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b6ed211282.jpg View in the other direction from the top of Big Daddy. Sand dunes for hundreds of miles. |
Part 5: The Getting Home Part
After another night in camp, we woke up for the drive back to Windhoek. We drove over the Spreetshoogte Pass (please don’t ask me how to pronounce that), not the easiest way to get back but probably the most interesting and enjoyed the views along the way. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d677c36246.jpg The rocket is very obviously fake. Other than that, I have no idea what is going on here. Our rental car company had told us to return the Hilux with as little gas as possible, the same way we got it, and we took them very seriously. I sure hope they had a gas can on site because I don’t think they were going to make it to the nearest gas station on the fumes we left them in the tank. The trip back to the airport was uneventful. Once there we needed to wait in line for a minute as the airport requires a paper boarding pass to go through security. The line wasn’t too bad and we soon found ourselves in the Priority Pass lounge where my kids did some serious damage to the buffet. We were flying home on a self-connection, with a flight on Discover Airlines to Frankfurt followed by a flight back to the States. Like most of the flights between Europe and southern Africa the flight left in the evening and arrived first-thing the following morning, much like flights between the US and southern South America. We snagged three sets of pairs along the windows, the Anarchist with Mrs. dfw88, the Observer with me, and the Engineer getting two seats to himself so he could get some rest. The flight was entirely uneventful. Most of the passengers were German, unsurprisingly, either young adults or retirees, with a few Belgians, Spaniards, and other western Europeans. A meal was served after takeoff, though we were still fairly full from the lounge. I don’t even think my kids stayed up long enough to eat it. After all of our adventures we were exhausted, so we all slept well and landed in FRA with plenty of time to continue home. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...344ac9cf61.jpg Ground boarding our Eurowings Discover A330 for the flight to FRA, as the sun sets. Overall, this was an exceptional family adventure. There was really nothing that went wrong at all. We made it where we needed to go, had plenty of time to enjoy the sites, didn’t need either spare tire, avoided running our car into any giraffes, and no one, especially not Mrs. dfw88, had any desert snake encounters. This was our first trip to Africa and it was a great introduction to a continent that we hope to return to many times in the future. The locals with whom we interacted, primarily at our campsites, were all friendly and helpful. The driving wasn’t too bad, once we learned what to expect, and the campsites were in good shape. I’d highly recommend a Namibian road trip to anyone considering it. |
An exceptional TR to cover an exceptional family adventure. I really enjoyed reading this and all of the TRs I've read that cover Namibia all convey how interesting the country is. This was no exception.
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I thoroughly enjoyed this report. We've been to Namibia twice, once to the southern area including overnighting in Swapkopmund, all self drive, and once to the northern part, driving ourselves to Etosha, then flying by private plane to various remote safari camps. It was fascinating to me that you camped with young children and that the entire trip was do it yourselves. The only place we totally crossed paths with you - ok, twice - were the seal colony and the sand dunes. Did you know that Chelsea Clinton honeymooned at Wolvedan? You have fantastic pictures of places we knew nothing about, including the abandoned diamond mind. Windhoek was a great place to buy business class tickets back to the US so we actually have been there three times - but the third simply an overnight stop and then onward on that great ticket.
I hope you write more because this really was a refreshing change from the way that I travel with a depth and wealth of things that you saw that I have not. I loved traveling with you. |
Thanks for sharing such a nicely written trip report. It brought back many fond memories of my two trips to Namibia many years ago. You definitely hit all the highlights, and your kids are fortunate to have such a great experience.
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I've been considering such an adventure in 2026. A lot of great info and I appreciate it. Thank you for posting!
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Originally Posted by dfw88
(Post 36981017)
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d60ec471ba.jpg
I realize there's no scale, so you'll have to trust me that these creatures were massive. No scale? Looks like a whole luggage carousel of scales to me :D Great report, excellent read. |
Thank you so much dfw88 for a lovely trip report. We first visited Namibia in 2021 (mid-COVID) and my heart yearns to go back again. Such a lovely country, fantastic scenery, great people and great wildlife. Roll on the big lottery win - I have an extensive trip planned to drive up from Cape Town to Etosha stopping at the places we didn't get to see first time around like Fish River Canyon. We visited the biggest in the world - Grand Canyon - now I want to see the 2nd biggest.
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Originally Posted by lamphs
(Post 36981281)
I've been considering such an adventure in 2026. A lot of great info and I appreciate it. Thank you for posting!
Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe - November 2021 |
Deadvlei
Your TR brings back nice memories of visiting Namibia in 2018.
Deadvlei was the main goal of the trip, especially running/sliding down the dunes. I am sure your kids will benefit from this kind of exotic trips, as I did as a teen. Thank you. |
What an amazing adventure for your boys. Sand dunes, shipwrecks, wild animals, sleeping on top of a car, whale skulls on the beach, hiking a plateau on safari. Its like every adventure book I read as a kid. And it was real life!
Thanks for sharing it. I am sure they will never forget it. |
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