Stanley Stewart writes about his time travelling to Namibia and through Kaokoland.
Avoided by the Boer trekkers, skirted around by subsequent explorers, and ignored by tourists who opt for high-end safaris with herd migrations and slavering lions centre-stage, Kaokoland continues to be one of the more elusive parts of Africa ‘far from safari circuits and game parks’. Guided by South African driver who has lived in Namibia for the best part of 20 years, Hans is described as ‘a man who could both winch a Land Cruiser out of a sandpit and produce an inventive salad.’
Coming across mysterious fairy circles, a Himba nomad resembling the queen of Sheba, and travelling over undulating dunes that Stewart describes ‘not as a static backdrop, but as creatures with a past’, he ends up at the Skeleton Coast, a place ‘barnacled with legends, haunted with ghosts, veiled with sea mist’ and ‘littered with the bones of whales and the ribs of wrecked ships’.
Please do have a read and, if you’re interested in a safari through the rarely visited landscapes of Kaokoland, please do get in touch with one of our destination specialists who would be happy to begin the conversation.