An epic family road trip across Namibia
This African nation is perfect for exploring and adventure but also family-friendly
The landscapes of Namibia are "monumental" in scale. You can drive across the country's wilderness areas for hours without passing another vehicle, and yet, in recent years, "incredible" lodges have opened in some of its most remote corners. My husband and I chose a road trip around Namibia as our first "long-haul family trip", said Gemma Bowes in The Times.
It proved to be just the sort of "big adventure" we'd been hoping for. On a ten-day loop from the capital city, Windhoek, we covered about a thousand miles, and only once found ourselves driving after dark (something to avoid as animals often lie on the "sun-warmed" roads at night). At Dead Valley Lodge, we watched the towering dunes of Sossusvlei change colour at sunrise – "crimson, straw and dried apricot" – and the children ran barefoot across them, "leaping and sliding" in sand "as soft as powdered milk".
Nearby lies Dead Vlei, the "ghost" of an ancient lake in whose "jigsaw-cracked" mud the skeletal remains of millennia-old trees still stand, having been charred by the sun before they could decompose. At Okonjima, we were transfixed for 20 "magical" minutes by the sight of a leopard stalking a herd of antelope; and at Kwessi Dunes, we saw ostriches, zebra, and oryx with "theatrical spiral horns", and at night gazed through a telescope at the Milky Way, which appeared as bright as "strip lighting".
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The "sea-misted" town of Swakopmund provided a "surreal" interlude, with its bierkellers and Bavarian-style architecture – a legacy of German colonial rule. From there, we drove to Damaraland, passing stalls run by Himba women, their bodies painted in red ochre, and Herero women in floor-length gowns. In the region's rocky desert, we spotted elephant and giraffe, but equally "fascinating" was the Damara Living Museum, where local people demonstrate ancient hunter-gatherer traditions, and explain them in the click language of Khoekhoe.
Expert Africa (expertafrica.com) has a ten-night trip from £11,168 for a family of four.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
A growing iodine deficiency could bring back America's goiter
Under the Radar Ailment is back thanks to complacency, changing diets and a lack of public-health education
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Today's political cartoons - November 10, 2024
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - civic duty, uncertain waters, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 ladylike cartoons about women's role in the election
Cartoons Artists take on the political gender gap, Lady Liberty, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Juror #2: Clint Eastwood's 'cleverly constructed' courtroom drama is 'rock solid'
The Week Recommends Nicholas Hoult stars in 'morally complex' film about a juror on a high-profile murder case
By The Week UK Published
-
Explore a timeless corner of Spain by bike
The Week Recommends Take a 'dawdling route through the back-country' far from the tourism hotspots
By The Week UK Published
-
Saoirse Ronan: how the actress went viral
In the Spotlight The actress dropped a 'chat-icide bomb' on Graham Norton's BBC show
By The Week UK Published
-
Edmund de Waal on this year's Booker Prize shortlist
The Week Recommends The chair of judges details works by Rachel Kushner, Percival Everett and others
By The Week UK Published
-
Griddled salmon and vegetables with miso and melted butter recipe
The Week Recommends Hokkaido comfort food classic with a delicious twist
By The Week UK Published
-
Shattered: Hanif Kureishi's 'inspirational' memoir of accident that left him paralysed
The Week Recommends 'Exhilarating' book is composed of diary entries dictated to his son Carlo
By The Week UK Published
-
Dr. Strangelove: is stage adaptation of iconic film a 'foolish' move?
Talking Point Steve Coogan puts on a dazzling performance in show that falls short of 'the real thing'
By The Week UK Published
-
Small Things Like These: 'stylish' Irish drama 'casts a powerful spell'
The Week Recommends 'Stylish' drama starring Cillian Murphy as a devoted father
By The Week UK Published