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Amy and I spent 3 weeks exploring Namibia in June/July 2009. This was, without a doubt, one of the most incredible and wonderful trips either of us has ever taken. It's a nearly unknown country and travel destination for most Americans, so here's a bit of info about the country and our trip.
About Namibia
Location: South-west coast of Africa, between South Africa (to the south), Angola (to the north), and Botswana (to the east). There's a strip of land that also gives Namibia a border with Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Size and population: ~319,000 sq miles, which is about twice as large as California, and about half the size of Alaska. It is shaped a bit like the region defined by California and Nevada (an area of about 270,000 sq miles). The population of Namibia is only about 2 million, making it the second most sparsely populated country in the world (after Mongolia).
Visitors: there are about 1 million tourists that visit Namibia each year, about 5 times fewer people than visit the Grand Canyon each year. Only about 20,000 Americans visit Namibia per year. Tourism is a major part of the Namibian economy, and the democratic parliamentary government and local governments seem to do all they can to encourage visitation.
Languages: English is the official language and was spoken fluently by all of the Namibians we met, but because Namibia used to be a German colony, German is also commonly spoken. Afrikaans and localized languages are common too, making Namibia an impressively multi-lingual country.
Our trip
Because Namibia is one of the most politically stable countries in Africa, it has a great road network, and it's easy and safe to travel through the country, we did this trip on our own without joining any organized groups. It seems that most visitors do this. We rented a 4x4 truck just after landing in the capital city Windhoek, and spent the entire 3 weeks driving around on our own. Our truck rental included all sorts of camping equipment, a small refrigerator, and a tent built onto the top of the back of the truck (there are pictures), and we spent almost half of our nights sleeping in the tent in campgrounds. This was always completely safe, and quite fun! This too is a common way for visitors to explore the country.
Full disclosure: the other half of our nights were spent in some pretty killer lodges, most of which were comprised of a small grouping of isolated tents in an awesome secluded setting. Every tent we stayed in was canvas, and inside was a double bed, down duvets, hot-water bottles brought in each night to help stay warm (the temperatures sometimes approached freezing), a few small pieces of furniture like night stands, and full bathroom attached. In this sense, tented lodge or camp can go hand-in-hand with an upscale place to stay.
When camping, we cooked our own meals (thanks Mary Janes!), but at the tented lodges, meals were included, and were fantastic - some of the best food we have ever had!
When not driving, we spent our days on landscape and game drives with fantastic guides, hiking on our own or with guides, or relaxing during the middle of the day at camp.
Through it all, we took many pictures too - about 6100 total between the 2 of us. It was hard to whittle that down to the 440 shown here - yes, even that's a lot (sorry for those of you with short attention spans), but if I spend any more time getting the list further reduced, they might not make it on the web. So here they are, and I hope you enjoy them. Please feel free to comment on any of them (I finally turned on the comment feature for this website.)
© Brian P. Anderson