Namibia
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Nigel, Ann and Emma travelled through Botswana and Namibia
Dear Michele, I am emailing to let you know that we have had a wonderful holiday. Thank you for putting together an itinerary that provided us with the contrasts that we were looking for and also for ‘reading’ our tastes so well. We have had some great experiences and when we reached Sossusviei Desert Lodge I thought that I had died and gone to heaven. I cannot imagine that it could be bettered. Its location is picture perfect and I think it got our vote for the best rooms we have ever stayed in. Our second favourite place was Camp Kalahari. You rather ‘down sold’ this, and when one of my friends told me that she was going for a second time to Jack’s Camp I felt a little envious (although having looked at the prices for Jack’s Camp I can see that it would have added considerably to the cost). However in the event the experience here was really memorable and we could not see how it could have been improved upon. We were very glad that we decided to do the Grey Matters excursion, we never thought that we would get so close to an elephant and learn so much about them. We weren’t as enthused by Stanley’s lodge as the other accommodation. However staying at Stanley or the sister camp is the only way of doing Grey Matters and we would not have wanted to have missed that. All the arrangements worked like clockwork and we enjoyed the connecting flights by light aircraft, the flights to and from Sossusviei stand out in particular. So thank you again for providing us with a spectacular holiday.
Namibia
Regions
The Skeleton Coast
Whilst you could describe the entire length of Namibia’s Atlantic coastline as ‘Skeleton Coast’, the official Skeleton Coast National Park is made up of the narrow coastal belt which stretches north from the Ugab River to the Angola border. The southern section of the park (up to Terrace Bay) can be visited by the general public, although generally a 4×4 would be required (there is little road infrastructure). North of that, the park is closed to all but one company who operate the exclusive Skeleton Coast Safari Camp. Flying safaris along the coast are possible, but north of Terrace Bay landing options are rather limited!
The flat and open beaches of the coastline, which are often shrouded in mist, are home to numerous Cape fur seal colonies, which in turn provide food for black-backed jackals and the rare brown hyaena. Close to the coast, the landscape is a mix of gravel plains and sand dunes, whilst further inland rocky ridges rise out of the desolate plains. At Terrace Bay, it is possible to drive into the sand dunes and experience the ‘roaring dunes’ where sand particles are so uniformly weathered they resonate deeply like a ‘tuba’ when disturbed.