Source: Southern Africa’s top 21 parks taken from the April 2010 Issue of Getaway Magazine.
The Namib is thought to be Earth’s oldest desert. It’s a place of jagged mountains, gravel plains, towering sand dunes and surprisingly abundant life.
By Alison West-wood. Photos by Patrick Wagner.
The Namib-Naukluft National Park covers nearly 50 000 square kilometres – more than two-and-a-half times the size of Kruger. It’s hyper-arid, receiving more moisture from Atlantic fogs than rain.
This formidable vastness sustains many strange plants and animals adapted to life on the edge. Welwitschia plants survive for centuries on sea mists; fog-basking beetles do handstands to catch condensation; Hartmann’s mountain zebras dig for water; and desert oryx simply never drink.
For visitors, highlights are Sesriem Canyon, a cleft that shelters secret streams; Sandwich Harbour, a fresh-water lagoon and birder’s paradise on the edge of a soft-serve desertscape; the Naukluft Mountains, rugged rock massifs with deep incisions carved by springs.
Most famous of all is Sossusvlei, a clay pan girdled by some of the world’s tallest dunes.
After rare heavy rains, the vlei forms a turquoise lake in a sea of rusty sand. Even when it’s dry, camel thorn trees bear green leaves, but twisted tree-skeletons at nearby Dead Vlei bear testimony to their eventual fate.
Top tips
- Try to visit Sossusvlei close to dawn or dusk. Gates shut between sunset and sunrise. It’s an hour’s drive from the campsite.
- The road from Sesriem to the 2×4 car park (five kilometres from the vlei) is tarred but in poor condition. If you don’t have a 4×4, you can walk from there or use a 4×4 transfer.
- The best time to visit is in autumn or spring. Days sizzle in summer and winter nights may drop below freezing.
Travel adviser
How to get there
Most of the park is inaccessible. Tourists can visit small areas of the Naukluft, central dunefields and northern Namib. To get to the Naukluft entrance, from Mariental drive west on the C19, north on the C14, then southwest on the D1206. Entrance to Sossusvlei is via Sesriem off the C19. From Walvis Bay, you can drive east through the Namib along the C14 or take the C28 from Swakopmund. Detours along demarcated tourist roads require a permit.
Where to stay
$$ Sesriem in the south offers access to Sesriem Canyon and Sossusvlei (63 km away).
This well-maintained campsite has a kiosk, petrol station, swimming pool and bar.
$ Naukluft Camp, in the central section, is the starting point of several day-walks as well as the eight-day, 120 km Naukluft Hiking Trail and two-day, 73 km Naukluft 4×4 Trail. There are communal ablutions and wood for sale.
$ The northern Namib section has 13 basic camping sites with no ablutions, water or wood.
How to book
For Sesriem and Naukluft, tel 021 -422-3761 or +264-61 -285-7200, e-mail reservations@nwr.com.na or web www.nwr.com.na.
No advance booking is possible for camping or permits in the Namib section. You have to visit the Ministry of Environment and Tourism office in Swakopmund, tel +264-64-404-576, Sesriem tel +264-63-6932-54 or Walvis Bay tel+264-64-205971/2.
For more on this park, go online and search www.getaway.co.za
This article was taken from the back issue of Getaway. April 2010 Special Edition.
