Sure Travel Journey Vol 4.2 Autumn 2018 | Page 27

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© LOUBSER/SHUTTERSTOCK
T
hose were the words of the famous
British explorer Wilfred Thesiger.
Though he may have been writing
about the Rub’ al Khali, the vast “Empty
Quarter” that stretches across the Arabian
Peninsula, his words ring equally true while
gazing over the vast empty expanses of
the NamibRand Nature Reserve.
It’s impossible not to be impressed
by this landscape, to fall under its
spell. To the west the red dunes of the
Namib-Naukluft National Park grind to a
halt in the rocky plains of the Pro-Namib.
The NamibRand is unique in conserving
this sensitive transition zone between
sand and stone, and to the east the
imposing outline of the Nubib Mountains
frames the dawn. It’s a land where the
passage of time isn’t marked by the
hands of a clock, but by the rising heat of
the morning, the shimmer of afternoon
sun and the welcome arrival of the
evening’s cool.
For generations the lands that make up
the NamibRand were a patchwork of dry
sheep and cattle ranches, where tough
farmers eked out an existence from the
harsh landscape. Albi Brückner was one
such farmer, but he was also a visionary
who realised that the land could not
MAKE MEMORIES FOR LIFE // 27