The concept of wilderness – as places largely unaltered by human development, both on land as well as in the sea – fascinates me. In 2016, I gave myself a goal to visit each of our planet’s last remaining large wilderness areas and to document the relationship that people have with these places on my blog – I am Wilderness (www.iamwilderness.com). Namibia, with one ocean wilderness – the Benguela – and portions of three globally significant large wilderness areas on land – the Namib Desert, the Kalahari and a sliver of the Okavango – seemed like a natural starting place.
What I learned next about travel to Namibia blew my mind. It is one of the safest, most politically stable and budget-friendly destinations in Africa. 2nd only to Mongolia as the least densely populated country on Earth, crime rates are low and largely restricted to urban centers, of which there are few. And having learned lessons from mistakes made by neighboring countries like Angola and Zimbabwe, Namibia has taken the high road on it’s journey into independence, forgiving past atrocities, embracing the West and elevating nature-based tourism as an economic priority.
Namibia has also perfected budget-minded, do-it-yourself tourism centered on self-driving safaris and amenity-minded campgrounds. This was ideal for what I wanted to achieve here. But if tent camping is not for you, there are still plenty of options for luxury, all-inclusive safari camps – such as Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp (http://www.wilderness-safaris.com/camps/hoanib-skeleton-coast) – or you can join any number of standard safari tours as are common throughout southern and eastern Africa.
So in April 2016, I took a 22-hour flight from DC to Windhoek, rented a 4x4 with a rooftop camping unit and gear set, and head out on what was to become a 3,500 km drive over a period of 10 days. As I was most interested in witnessing the influence of the Benguela Current on the Namib Desert, I charted a loop course through central and northern Namibia – a route that would also bring me to Etosha, the country’s most notable game park and the far northwestern-most reaches of yet another desert – the Kalahari. This itinerary demanded a lot of driving in a short time frame and I would not recommend it to anyone wishing to linger and get to fully know a single place. But for maximizing the most Namibian wilderness in the shortest time, this was about as good as it gets.
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