Park

The black skeletons of camel-thorn trees on a glaring white clay pan, set against a singularly striking backdrop of vivid hues created by some of the tallest sand dunes on Earth. Images of Dead Vlei and Sossusvlei are world famous. They’ve been published in every travel magazine and used in countless adverts, calendars and online posts. Yet neither all that exposure, nor all the visitors, should diminish the wonder of this most magical of desert realms.

Over 34,000 square kilometres of dune fields – the Namib Sand Sea. It is everything the words conjure up and more. A blank spot on all maps. A place without roads or tracks, without people and their goods. Visually stunning, but physically an incredibly harsh and inaccessible environment. A world seemingly devoid of life. The tract with the lowest biodiversity in the country.

Yet there is life here, uniquely adapted to this hyper-arid environment. Vegetation is scant. Sparse grasses; a sprinkling of short-lived herbs after rare rains. The most emblematic plant is the endemic !nara that occurs on the sand sea’s fringes. Yet even far out ‘at sea’, the dunes support life. Endemic reptiles and insects; wandering birds and mammals. Surprisingly, there is even evidence of the intermittent presence of prehistoric humans.

Sand dunes hold a special allure for us. Maybe they always have. They’re associated with sunshine, with warmth and wind. Their sensual shapes and the broad range of their colours enchant us. The texture of dry sand is a memory of childhood wonder; the feel of it trickling through our fingers, or squeezing up between our toes.

In recognition of all of its outstanding universal values, the entire Namib Sand Sea was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013. Sossusvlei is its focal point. The place that everybody needs to see.

Deserts are, by definition, places with little life. Yet they are places with unique life. Adaptable creatures great and small, in low abundance but impressive diversity inhabit the Namib. And this expansive desert provides a very broad range of habitats and landforms, from the rugged Naukluft Mountains in the east to the dramatic coastline were dunes dip into the ocean; from great dune fields to endless gravel plains, dissected by the narrow lifelines of ephemeral rivers.

The Namib gives Namibia its name. It dominates the western quarter of the country. It blankets the entire coast and stretches well over a hundred kilometres inland. It is only right that a vast part of it is conserved in the Namib-Naukluft National Park, and the coastal parks adjoining it. The Namib-Naukluft Park is by far the largest of all Namibia’s state parks, and one of the largest in Africa. Its core Central Namib section was also one of the first three parks proclaimed in Namibia over a hundred years ago. The park is so big that it is divided into three core areas for visitors: the Central Namib; Sossusvlei and the sand sea; and the Naukluft Mountains. Each area has a very unique character and is worth a visit on its own. Sossusvlei is resplendent desert beyond superlatives. Other parts of the Namib are more subtle – the overwhelming space of gravel plains; the labyrinthine Moon Landscape; the rugged realm of the Naukluft; the interface of sea and sand at Sandwich Harbour…

From the tallest animal on Earth to microscopic life, from welwitschias to lichens, the Namib is inhabited by a profusion of fascinating lifeforms. Many are endemic to its habitats. The diversity and character of this amazing desert provide valuable lessons for us. New horizons for travellers and new insights for science.

TRAVEL TIPS - NAMIB-NAUKLUFT:

WHEN TO BE THERE:
•   Namib-Naukluft is open all year
•   Conditions vary across the huge park
•   Weather at the coast is generally mild; the interior can become extremely hot
•   Some parts such as hiking trails are closed during the hottest months

WHAT TO DO:
•   Visit all sections of the park to experience the complexity of the Namib
•   Enjoy great sightings of desert wildlife
•   Keep an eye out for all the fascinating small creatures
•   Walk in the desert to feel its ambience

WHAT TO REMEMBER:
•   Permits are required for all sections of the park
•   Central Namib & Sandwich Harbour permits are available in Windhoek, Swakopmund & Walvis Bay
•   Permits for Sossusvlei & Naukluft are available at the respective park stations
•   No off-road driving; camping only at designated sites

Cape Teal

Egyptian Goose

Red-Billed Teal

African Palm-Swift

History

Even when southwestern Africa was barely populated, and enough resources were apparently available for all, the Namib Sand Sea drew people to it. When Europeans arrived, they heard rumours of people living in the dunes – conjuring up visions of hidden oases, of a ‘Bushman Paradise’. Such dreams have long been dispelled. Every square metre of the Namib has been captured on satellite imagery. Yet the allure of the near-impenetrable dune sea remains – now accessible through four-by-four adventures.

The most comprehensive precolonial map of the areas then known as Great Namaqualand and Damaraland was drawn by the German missionary, trader and explorer, Johannes Theophilus Hahn, in 1879. It covered the area from the !Gariep River (today’s Orange River) as far north as the ‘Uni!ab River (Uniab) and the Omuramba ua Matako (Omatako). The bold label ‘Great Namaqualand’ reaches from Walewich Bay (Walvis Bay) to the ‘Ê»Karas Mountains. The map includes astounding details of rivers and watercourses, mountains and hills, settlements and water points with all their names, as well as numerous notes on inhabitants and chiefs. It is crammed with information across much of the area between the !Gariep and Tsoaxoub (Swakop) rivers, with detail rapidly decreasing northward.

The Namib Sand Sea is a basically blank space on the map, with two intriguing exceptions. ‘Sandy Desert inhabited by wandering Bushmen called !Geinin; Abundance of Ostriches & Gemsbucks’ is written in three well-spaced lines covering much of the sand sea. The second inscription is more intriguing still, and inspired many expeditions into the erg. East of Conception Bay and south of the !Khuiseb River (Kuiseb) there is a lengthy note in small handwriting: ‘Hereabouts are said to be some large fountains inhabited by an independent Namaqua Tribe. Abundance of Game. Lions, Camelopards [giraffes], Rhinoceros, Elands, Ostriches.’ This became the fabled ‘Bushman Paradise’, which fuelled the imagination of explorers and fortune-seekers for decades. Officers of the German Schutztruppe were foremost amongst them.

In 1909, Officer Märker was one of the first Europeans to explore the dunes westwards along the Tsondab River in the hope of finding the legendary fountains. He had driven part of the way from Windhoek in one of the first vehicles imported into the colony, and then rode into the dunes on camelback. He managed to come to within about 20 kilometres of coast – without finding any water or people.

Also in 1909, Officer Walter Trenk and company used camels to explore the course of the Tsauchab River and reached Sossusvlei. During a second expedition in mid-1909, Trenk traversed the dune sea to reach St Francis Bay, then travelled north via Meob Bay to near Conception Bay, and back inland along the 24th latitude to the Naukluft. The camelback journey covered over 500 kilometres (around 300 of them across high dunes!) in 16 days – a truly astounding feat.

Trenk wrote of a prospector already having crossed the sand sea from the Tsauchab to the coast prior to his own expedition. He also notes a completely trampled ‘street’ running along the coast, which he followed between Meob Bay and Conception Bay. During only six days spent along the Atlantic, Trenk met a police patrol, prospectors and a trader and their respective parties, as well as ‘bushmen’ living near Meob Bay. Obviously, the coastal route between Lüderitzbucht (Lüderitz) and Walfischbucht (Walvis Bay) was much used at this time, and local people still lived along the coast in this area.

The surveyor Maack, stationed at Conception Bay during 1912, mentions that the search for the ‘Bushman Paradise’ – and related hopes of diamonds or other riches – was still very much alive in the minds of many fortune-hunters at this time.

The sand sea is not an easy place for archaeological research. Even with modern equipment it remains difficult to work in. Potential sites have mostly been obliterated by the sand, although some may briefly be uncovered by the wind, soon to be swallowed again by shifting sands. Our knowledge of the more-distant past in the sand sea remains very limited, yet enough evidence has been found to show that people used the area, at least sporadically, for hundreds of thousands of years.

The sand sea is littered with more-recent signs of man – mostly abandoned mining sites with intriguing names that whisper of adventures past: Charlottenfelder, Fischersbrunn, Grillenberger, Holsatia. The sites are today of tourism interest and some lie along the routes now used by safari operators. The coast offers additional intriguing relics here. Famous shipwrecks such as the Otavi at Spencer Bay and the Eduard Bohlen south of Conception Bay can be visited as part of a sand sea safari. The Eduard Bohlen ran aground in 1909, but now lies over 350 metres inland from the seashore, highlighting rapid changes to the shoreline.

Life in, and exploration of, the dune sea was always dictated by water availability. A surprising number of freshwater springs are located along the coast, and water can be found along the ephemeral rivers in the east. Sesriem Canyon was once an important water source, which lead to its name. Sesriem means ‘six thongs’ – six leather thongs from a wagon harness were tied together to collect water from a waterhole in the canyon by lowering a bucket from the canyon’s edge. Blanketed as it is by hundreds of metres of sand, the dune sea itself is devoid of fresh water.

The name Namib-Naukluft naturally evolved as the park was expanded to include both areas. ‘Namib’ is a Nama word meaning ‘desert’ and ‘naukluft’ is an adaptation of the Afrikaans words ‘nou kloof’, meaning ‘narrow gorge’.

Activities

Conservations

Deserts are places of silence, quiet contemplation and solitude. In the early 1990s, it was still possible to be at Sossusvlei without other visitors. An incredible privilege, to stand in that scenery alone, or with just one or two like-minded companions. Today, Sossusvlei is rightfully one of the most iconic attractions of Africa. Yet it highlights that dilemma of tourism: We all long to experience the pristine, the unique and the magical, and thereby congest – and mar – some of the greatest sites on Earth.

Tourism is continually confronted with a fundamental challenge: making unique and often very sensitive attractions accessible without major negative impacts on those attractions. ‘Overtourism’ and ‘touristification’ are being discussed as pertinent issues around the world, as rapidly growing visitor numbers at key sites put increasing pressure on those sites. Impacts include not only direct physical damage and threats to biodiversity, but also cultural and social disruption of communities, steep price increases that exclude locals, overcrowding and a loss of the character and sense of place of an area. Modern conservation seeks to safeguard environments while at the same time justifying their status as protected areas through revenue generation that benefits local communities and the country as a whole. These seeming dichotomies can be reconciled, but only with vision and careful, sensitive management.

At Sossusvlei, the direct, physical impacts of thousands of people can be managed by cordoning off sensitive areas and creating wooden walkways and viewing platforms to reduce the already very noticeable effects of trampling on desert vegetation, ancient tree skeletons and sensitive clay deposits. Tourism pressure can also be diffused by diverting focus to a broader range of stunning sites in the area.

The outstanding value of the Namib Sand Sea led to its listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013. The site easily meets the criteria for natural heritage site selection – ‘exceptional natural beauty’, ‘significant on-going geological processes’, ‘significant on-going ecological and biological processes’ and ‘significant natural habitats for the conservation of biological diversity’. Although they are overshadowed by its scenic attributes, the sand sea also holds important archaeological and palaeontological sites. This is the only coastal desert that features vast, contiguous dune fields, which create a unique environment for all living organisms, including humans and their ancestors.

Map

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Namib-Naukluft Park