Welcome to the Namib, the oldest desert on earth and certainly one of the most beautiful and accessible desert regions on the planet. This is sand-dune country par excellence, silent, constantly shifting and ageless, and an undoubted highlight of any visit to Namibia. The epicentre of its appeal is at Sossusvlei, Namibia’s most famous strip of sand, where gargantuan dunes tower more than 300m above the underlying strata.
Elsewhere the land lives up to its name: the Nama word ‘Namib’ inspired the name of the entire country and rather prosaically means ‘vast dry plain’. Then there are the Naukluft Mountains, which are barren and beautiful and filled with an appeal all their own.
The Namib-Naukluft National Park takes in around 23,000 sq km of arid and semi-arid land and protects various areas of vast ecological importance in the Namib and the Naukluft. The park also abuts the NamibRand Nature Reserve, the largest privately owned property in Southern Africa, forming a massive wildlife corridor that promotes migratory movement.