Week 3: Namibia DAY 1-3: SOSSUSVLEI The cracked salt and clay pan of Sossusvlei in the Namib Desert is home to giant golden dunes and blackened skeleton trees. Sands are combed by hot, dry winds. Gemsbok and kudu shelter in shadows from the unforgiving sun. One of the best ways to experience this
eerie and remote land is by hot air balloon. Drift against the desert sky while keeping an eye out for springbok herds and lone ostriches wandering between long-dead thorn trees.
DAY 4-7: SKELETON COAST NATIONAL PARK The stark Skeleton Coast is known by Namibia’s indigenous San people as ‘the land God made in anger’. Despite this ominous moniker, it is a beautiful area that’s home
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to skyscraping sand dunes, extra-terrestrial- looking succulents and desert-adapted wildlife. In northwest Namibia, a 1.5h charter flight
from Windhoek, the Skeleton Coast is named for shipwrecks that litter its barren shores, as well as macabre skeletons that are remnants of the whaling industry. Visitors will enjoy the challenge of spotting
black-backed jackals, brown hyenas and, less commonly, elephants and giraffes amid the otherworldly Atlantic mist that blankets the national park. There are also thousands of Cape fur seals and the occasional sea lion to be spotted at the Cape Cross Seal Reserve. Travelers should also visit a traditional
Himba village and witness the ways of the seminomadic people and their livestock who have dwelled here for centuries.
Above: Skeletal trees and golden dunes in Namibia’s Namib- Naukluft National Park