UNCOVERING NAMIBIA’S BEST KEPT SECRET: THE SOUTH

Namibia’s northern wonders often hog the limelight, but the country’s lesserknown southern reaches have plenty of natural drama. This is where the Namib meets the Kalahari, as well as the biodiverse Richtersveld and the picturesque Namaqualand in South Africa; where the widescreen landscapes feel even larger thanks to the lack of crowds; and where superlatives rule supreme. Namibia’s south is home to both Africa’s biggest canyon and the world’s tallest sand dunes.

Some of this dramatic scenery even spills over the border into South Africa, but southern Namibia has plenty in the way of cultural experiences, wildlife encounters and mesmerising vistas that will make your jaw hang as wide as the landscapes themselves. Here are five of its secret gems that are well worth exploring.

1. SOSSUSVLEI

The cloud-baiting dunes of Sossusvlei reach 325m high and are perhaps the Namib Desert at its most dramatic. These dunes have had plenty of time to grow – around 55 million years – and to truly appreciate their colossal nature you need to clamber up one. The aptly named Big Daddy is the tallest, and the hour it takes to summit rewards you with panoramas of rippling sand. Seeing it at different times of the day even changes the way it looks: golden and toffee-coloured in the afternoon; dusty-rose and purple come dusk. One of the best times to spy this phenomenon is at first light in a hot air balloon, when you can watch the sunrise cast an apricot glow over this ancient landscape. It feels eerily desolate but isn’t completely empty, as a guided nature walk will prove. Here you can see everything from oryx, ostriches and brown hyenas to the tiny tracks of toktokkie beetles.

2. LÜDERITZ AND THE KOLMANSKOP GHOST TOWN

Pinned between the Namib Desert and the Atlantic Ocean, the isolation that the formerly German colonial town of Lüderitz enjoys means its Art Nouveau architecture has been left alone by the 21st century. Its village-like atmosphere and historic buildings are a joy to wander, while Easter sees the town transformed for its annual Crayfish Festival, and summer draws wind enthusiasts for the International Speed Challenge in wind and kite surfing.

This vibrant celebration is a display of the area’s rich marine life – something you can explore further with a visit to see the African penguin colony on nearby Halifax Island or on boat tours to spy Heaviside’s dolphins.

Make your way along the sands of the Namib and you might spot wild horses roaming the desert before stumbling upon Kolmanskop. This ghost town was built on the area’s diamond mining fortunes since the early 1900’s but was completely abandoned by the 1950s. To see this once-thriving village, which had its own theatre and bowling alley, now totally engulfed by sand is starkly surreal.

3. TSAU//KHAEB (SPERRGEBIET) NATIONAL PARK

For over 100 years, since the first gemstone was unearthed here, the area of Tsau //Khaeb (Sperrgebiet) National Park was a hive of diamond-mining activity in specific areas. It was also off-limits to visitors – sperrgebiet means ‘prohibited area’ in German – and through tight security restrictions the area was left as wilderness for the most part. But that’s slowly changing. Tourism concessions are now granting long-awaited access to this pristine wilderness’ swirling rock formations and meteor craters.

There are plenty of highlights to see. The Bogenfels Rock Arch rises 55m above the salty waves, while the rusting Barge 77 shipwreck is all that is left of the mobile diamond processing plant created by Texan oilman Sammy Collins. He thought that if there are diamonds on shore, they must be off-shore, too. But his mission failed, and the ship capsized in the early 1960s after a storm.

The Tsau //Khaeb National Park isn’t all about barren desertscapes; it’s also one of the world’s top biodiverse hotspots in the Succulent Karoo Biome, and around a quarter of Namibia’s species of flora are found here. Wildlife is particularly bountiful in Baker’s Bay, home to Namibia’s southernmost fur seal colony, brown hyenas and African penguins.

4. ORANJEMUND

On the face of it, Oranjemund is just another one of Namibia’s successful diamond-mining towns, cast way out in the deep south. It was founded in the 1930s to harvest the diamond deposits found along the Orange River and immediately on the beaches north of the Orange River mouth, but for nearly 80 years this town was closed off to outsiders and managed by Namdeb, half of which is owned by the Namibian government and the other half by private company De Beers. It became something of an enigma until 2017, when its secrets were spilled and its doors opened to the world. What lies within has been worth the wait.

Vibrant street murals now splash across Oranjemund, championing Namibian artists. The quaint Jasper House Museum not only charts the evolution of this old mining town but explores the natural history of its surrounding national park. Oranjemund comes alive every month with a night market showcasing food and crafts fashioned by its locals. The annual Diamond Festival is a must experience event that brings the region alive. It also has its wild side. You can spy oryx nibbling on the town’s bushes and flower-filled gardens, while the mouth of the nearby Orange River is a wetland teeming with some 10,000 birds, including Damara terns, African hoopoes, spoonbills and more. It is interesting to notice that the famous Namib Dune sea come from the Orange River, whose catchment area encompasses 973,000 km² in 77% of the land area of South Africa, as well round 366,000 km² (38%) from Lesotho, Botswana, and Namibia. Due to wave action and high winds, the sediments this river brings to the shores of Namibia eventually end up as the Namib Sand Sea. It is an incredible thought that the Namib Dunes are in fact the misplaced delta of the Orange River.

5. FISH RIVER CANYON

Namibia’s south still has one more surprise up its sleeve: Fish River Canyon. This gargantuan landscape is the world’s second-largest canyon and often feels like it might be more at home on Mars. At 160km long, 27km wide and up to 550m deep, you can get a sense of its rugged expanse just by peering over its edge, but this is a phenomenon that deserves the whole hog. For that, embark on a five-day hike where you descend into the canyon’s belly and trek the riverbed to its conclusion (there’s no other way out). It’s the ultimate finale for any adventure through southern Namibia.