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.
From Windhoek, I traveled south to the Namib-Naukluft National Park to encounter some of the most extreme desert landscapes in world. For my first two nights I made camp at Sesrium, a state-run campground inside the park boundaries and the best launching point for visiting Sossusvlei. Named for a salt pan, Sossusvlei is the most accessible entry point into the Namib’s dune sea – an other worldly landscape that includes some of oldest and tallest sand formations in the world. The tallest of them all, Dune 7, rises 383m from its base –taller than the roof of the Empire State Building.
A highlight of this locale is Deadvlei – literally “dead marsh” – a white clay pan on which an ancient forest of dead camelthorn trees Acacia erioloba still sands. The trees are 600 to 1,000 years old, scorched black by the sun and do not decompose because it is so dry. This dead forest was created when shifting dunes blocked the flow of the Tsauchab River – an occurrence that happened before Columbus encountered America.
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After Sossusvlei, my destination was the coast. And to get there you must cross the entirety of the Namib Desert, traversing some of the most desolate and wide-open terrain on the planet. If you’ve seen the 2015 movie Mad Max: Fury Road, it was filmed here. And as the film depicted, there’s not a drop of water. But there are wild landscapes as far as the eye can see. Seeing them first hand, it is no wonder that the word Namib means “vast place” in Nama - and that Namibia in turn is “the Land of Vast Places”.
The rough road across the Namib empties out into Walvis Bay, a quaint seaside village and Namibia’s largest deep water port. But the town’s most notable feature is its saltwater lagoon. Declared a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in 1995, the lagoon supports the largest number of wading shorebirds of any wetland in southern Africa – including more than 28,000 Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber roseus. In stark contrast to the Namib, this is where the Benguela breaths life into the coast.
Driving north from Walvis Bay, the landscape quickly changes from massive, rolling dunes to desolate gravel fields. The ocean to the west is considered one of the most treacherous bodies of water on Earth and this Benguela shoreline is commonly referred to as the “Skeleton Coast”. Sailors have also referred to the region as “The Gates of Hell”, while native Bushmen award it the more optimistic designation of "The Land God Made in Anger". This meeting point of dry, hot desert air and a frigid cold ocean produces thick blankets of fog, covering both land and sea for miles in all directions. The dense fog has proved fatal for thousands of seafaring vessels whose skeletons now litter this forsaken coastline.
My next stop was Cape Cross, the site of one tBenguela’s most remarkable ocean wildlife spectacles. Here Cape fur seals Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus gather in numbers in excess of 100,000 individuals. One of the largest colonies of fur seal in the world, Cape Cross unfortunately has a dark side. The “reserve” is one of several spots on the Namibian coast in which an annual cull for fur seal is permitted by the Namibian government. Some refer to this cull as the largest and cruelest marine mammal slaughter in the world. Each year 85,000 fur seal pups are beaten to death for their fur pelts. Another 6,000 or so adult bulls are also killed in order to harvest their genitalia for Asian medicinal markets. The Namibian government claims this cull is necessary in order to protect fisheries. However, environmental organizations argue that the fur seals have an insignificant, and perhaps even positive, impact on fish stocks. Nevertheless, it is a shocking undercurrent for a place designated to protect this species.
After a night at the Cape Cross Lodge, it was time to head inland once again. For the next several nights I stayed at remote desert campgrounds in Damaraland. This scenic region is known for its beautiful rock formations, often decorated with ceremonial rock art dating thousands of years old. It is also home to desert elephants the endangered black rhino.
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