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Namibia Travel | SAFARIS, TOURS, PEOPLE AND CULTURE
Neighboring Country attraction:
The Victoria Falls is the world's largest waterfall and the adventure capital of Africa.
Namibia Travel and Tourism at a Glance
Skip to: Quick Start Guide to Namibia | Travel in Namibia
Land of contrast, color and adventure - The dunes of Sossusvlei are amongst the highest in the world, rising a thousand feet (300 meters) above the desert. With the changing light of day, these ancient dunes change through shades of apricot, red and mauve. Climb to the top for panoramic views across the ocean of dunes.
The fabled Skeleton Coast provides a backdrop for adventure in the heart of the wilderness, with shipwreck-strewn beaches and the mystery of the roaring dunes.
Cultures and customs - Namibia's rich history provides a mixing bowl of cultures, customs and German architecture. The nomadic Himba people live as they have for centuries, dressed in goat skins and jewelry fashioned from leather, metal and shells.
Wildlife in the wilderness - Etosha National Park's vast salt pans, savanna and woodland provide host to wildlife's Big Five and the adventure of safari.
Cultural Interaction
Geology Tours
Birding
Quick Start Guide to Namibia
Geologically, Namibia has a unique and fascinating landscape and forms part of an extremely old region, with Pre-Cambrian granitic and metamorphic rocks dating back over two billion years. It is a region of specific appeal to college groups and earth scientists.
The country has much to offer the adventurer, including camel riding, 4x4 trails, quadbiking, sandboarding, guided hikes, balloon flights over the dunes of Sossusvlei, a flying safari up the Skeleton Coast and scenic flights over the desert.
Etosha National Park - When the rains fall, large herds of wildlife, flocks of flamingoes and wading birds are drawn to the pans and waterholes.
Visit the Kolmanskop ghost town near Luderitz and historic Cape Cross with its colony of 200,000 cape fur seals.
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Jewel of Namibia: National Geograhic Channel
[25:04 min] [Attribution: National Geographic Channel]
Join husband-and-wife team Frans Lanting and Christine Eckstrom on a wild desert journey through Namibia — a land of exotic creatures and haunting landscapes. |
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The Skeleton Coast
Hugging the Atlantic shoreline to the north of the country, the Skeleton Coast owes its name to the many ship wrecks strewn along its remote shores, icons to the battle between man and the ocean with its dense coastal fogs. Large whale skeletons lie scattered on desolate beaches, evidence of their offshore migrations to and from
the whale breeding grounds.
Access to the Skeleton Coast is limited to 4x4 vehicles and light aircraft. Fly in safaris provide the easier way to reach the northern part of this
unique 80,000 square mile (2-million hectare) park, providing a bird's eye view of the spectacular desert landscapes. Gigantic dunes give way to open plains, rugged canyons, mountain ranges filled with multi-colored volcanic rock and beaches scattered with colored pebbles of lava, granite and agate.
A suggested tour includes the Namib-Naukluft National Park in the south, the Skeleton Coast, a Himba village and a safari in Etosha National Park.
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Namib-Naukluft National Park and Sossusvlei
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Desert Landscape of Sossusvlei - Great Attractions (Namibia)
[1:21 min] [Attribution: geobeats]
Take a tour of Desert Landscape of Sossusvlei in Namibia -- part of the World's Greatest Attractions travel video series by GeoBeats.
One of the most compelling features of Namibia is the astounding landscape of Sossusvlei, a part of the Namib desert. Trekking up the huge red sand dunes is an incredible experience. |
The vast Namib-Naukluft National Park, stretching inland from the Atlantic shores in the south, is no exception to Namibia's theme of contrasts. It is an arid desert with purple hued mountains and mountainous apricot sand dunes with knife-edge sandy summits sculptured by the wind. Geologists believe that the Namib-Naukluft is the most ancient desert known to man. The oldest sand dunes display the brightest hues due to slow iron oxidation and a zillion tiny fragments of garnets. With the changing light of day, colors change from deep rust orange to red and then to mauve, making this a magical and inviting travel destination.
Sandwich lagoon, an estuarine lagoon and wetland, emerges as a surprise from the desert landscape. Protected from the fierce Atlantic, this important part of the desert ecology supports 200,000 birds drawn to the mudflats.
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"Ghost Trees at Dawn" — the thorn trees of Namibia's Dead Vlei.
[2:47 min]
[Attribution: National Geographic Channel]
National Geographic Live: The Surreal World of Frans Lanting
Photographer Frans Lanting shares the secret of his masterful image, "Ghost Trees at Dawn" — the thorn trees of Namibia |
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The Himba
Namibia's semi-nomadic Himba people live in an arid area of North-Western Namibia known as Kaokoland, a short distance inland of the inhospitable desert coastline. These are a proud people dressed in goat skins and jewelry fashioned from leather, metal and shells. They protect and decorate their hair and bodies with rich ochre mud mixed with animal fat, turning their skins into a rich chocolate brown.
The Himba are herdsmen, breeding mainly cattle and goats and migrate with their herds to scattered waterholes from season to season.
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Desert Wildlife
These arid regions support a surprising variety of wildlife. Desert-habituated elephant. springbok (antelope), giraffe, oryx, brown hyena, ostrich, black
rhino and even lion are found inland where more fresh water is available and the riverine bush provides fodder. Surprised visitors to the region have on occasion
witnessed elephants in the interior of the park sliding down the sandy dunes then clambering up the next to surf down the far side.
Fauna and flora of the area rely on sea fog that rolls in from the ocean up to 60 miles inland. Animals are amazingly adaptable to extreme environments - the oryx antelope can survive temperatures up 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45*C). Temperatures this high are often deadly to other mammals.
Etosha National Park
East of the Skeleton coast, a vast shallow salt pan surrounded by grass and woodlands is home to a large variety of wildlife, including zebra, wildebeest, eland, impala, giraffe and springbok. The salt pan of
Etosha National Park provides a breeding sanctuary for flamingoes. Vultures circle high above in search of their next morsel. During the rainy season from January through March, the pan fills with water and animals give birth to their young. Dry grass and woodlands become lush green feeding grounds for an abundance of wildlife and it is not uncommon to see a herd of fifty elephant walking straight down the road, giving the traveler an intimate encounter with this majestic animal.
Although Etosha National Park does not allow off-road and night safaris, private game reserve properties adjacent to the Park are not limited by these restrictions, providing accommodation in comfortable lodge or tented campsite.
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Conference venues in Namibia
Hotel/Casino style conference facilities are available in the city of Windhoek, with a capacity of up to 900 persons. A number of smaller conference venues are available in Swakopmund and elsewhere.
Click on the MICE link (Business Events and Incentives) at the top of the page for details.
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