A Desert Garden at Brandberg

The Brandberg in Namibia is one of the most arid environments I have ever been in. All the plants and animals have had to adapt to the lack of water, but contrary to what one expect, there is a lot of life here. There is a more detailed introduction to the area in the post The […]

The White Lady of Brandberg

Post by Willie for Notes from Africa Another fascinating place  in Namibia is the Brandberg Mountain. Situated in the north-western area of the Namib (Damaraland), the Brandberg Massif is a granite intrusion which forms a dome-shaped massif.  It is huge covering approxing 650 km², with its highest point being at 2573 metres (8442 feet) about sea-level. On […]

Moon Mountain Lodge

After a day of traipsing through and photographing the red dunes at Sossusvlei, we travelled to Moon Mountain Lodge. This was totally unexpected after Willie’s dire warnings that things were going to be “all downhill here from here” (with reference to our stay at Naries). Moon Mountain Lodge is a luxury tented lodge located in the […]

Spitzkoppe – link

There was a problem when the original post was published . . . please see link below. Post by Willie for Notes from Africa Spitzkoppe in Namibia is a spectacular and unusual place.  The Spitzkoppe and Pontok mountains rise dramatically from an otherwise flat semi-desert landscape.  … Source: Spitzkoppe – Between a rock and a […]

Spitzkoppe – Between a rock and a hard place

Post by Willie for Notes from Africa Spitzkoppe in Namibia is a spectacular and unusual place.  The Spitzkoppe and Pontok mountains rise dramatically from an otherwise flat semi-desert landscape.  There are many reasons to visit this fascinating set of mountains and the surrounding area. Many years ago when traveling from Windhoek to Swakupmund I saw […]

Sossusvlei

Sossusvlei is usually taken to mean the red dune area of the Namib-Naukluft National Park which lies in the southern part of the Namib Desert, Namibia. Although there is an actual salt and clay pan called “Sossusvlei”. If you do a search in Google Images on “Namibia”, a lot of the images that are displayed come […]

Tirasberg

After leaving the arid and rocky south around the Fish River Canyon, we started heading north towards the red dune area of Sossusvlei. On our way we stopped off in the Tirasberg. We turned north from the Keetmanshoop – Lüderitz road, and on to the Tiras Plain, located between the Rooirand (Escarpment) and the south eastern foothills of […]

Solitaire: Apple pie in the desert

Solitaire is a small settlement in the Khomas Region of central Namibia near the Namib-Naukluft National Park. We came upon it while driving from the red dune area of Sossusvlei to Walvis Bay at the coast. The main settlement is very small – it has a petrol station, post office, a bakery and a general […]

The Quiver Tree Forest and Giant’s Playground

Thirteen kilometres north-east of Keetmanshoop, on the farm Gariganus, is a huge Quiver Tree (Afrikaans name: Kokerboom) forest. This is not what one usually thinks of as a “forest”, but it is an amazing collection of approximately 250 Aloe dichotoma  plants. These are tall (up to 7 meters or 23 feet tall), tree-like aloes which grow in the […]

Gondwana Canyon Village

When I was a child and our family visited Namibia, we just packed our camper van and camping gear, left Cape Town one morning and headed north for the border. That seemed fine in those days and we mostly found a place to stay for the night. Although I do remember us all having to […]