10 day Namibia Family Holiday

Otjozondjupa is part of the central regions in Namibia with various vegetation ranging from open savanna around Otjiwarongo Area, to lush vegetation which you can find in the main attraction area, Waterberg National park, and further north the Hoba meteorite close to the town of Grootfontein. 

The Hoba meteorite near Grootfontein, is a National Monument in Namibia and popular among tourists reason being, that this is the largest piece of iron ever found near Earth’s surface, weighing 66tons.

Most of the Accommodation offered would be in the Waterberg Plateau area.

It extends south of the Kaokoveld to the skeleton coast to the west. This also includes the Grootberg and the Brandberg Massif as well as the northern foothills of the Große Randstufe. Driving through the area you will experience again and again stunning landscapes with bizarre mountains and wide stony plains. You rarely come across people and settlements. For this, there are still wild rhinos and desert elephants, mainly in the western part.

About 100 kilometers west of the city of Khorixas, you will find the main attractions declared by UNESCO World Cultural Heritage, prehistoric rock engravings. The engravings are located on smooth slabs of reddish sandstone and represent mainly animals or animal tracks. Also worth seeing is the Damara Living Museum near Twyfelfontein, an open-air museum that reflects the culture and traditional way of life of the Damara people.

The basalt columns, known as “organ pipes”, are up to 5 meters high and were created 120 million years ago. Lava penetrated the shale rock under high pressure and was later exposed by persistent erosion. The columns are located below the road along a ravine. The razor-sharp edges of the columns are unique. These should be handled with caution.

The “Petrified Forest” is located 40 kilometers west of Khorixas. Here you can find the fossilized remains of 280 million-year-old tree trunks. In 1950, the place was declared a national monument.

Further north you will find Fort Sesfontein. During the German colonial period, this was a base for protection against the predatory Swartbooi Namas. The First World War led to the abandonment of the station. The old fort was restored a few years ago and turned into a lodge. It is considered a gateway to the Kaokoveld.

Another highlight in Damaraland are the Ugab terraces and the 35 meter high Vingerklip rock dome.

The Namib-Naukluft Park is Namibia’s largest nature reserve with a total area of around 50,000 square kilometers. It comprises a belt about 100 to 150 kilometres wide along the Namibian coastal desert, which begins in the north at the Swakop River valley and extends in the south to Lüderitz. The relevant part of this huge area is a concession area and is not accessible to people.

The northern part between Swakop and Kuiseb is called the Namib Section. A wide gravel road leads from Walvis Bay through the Namib Naukluft Park and gives an impression of the imposing landscapes of rugged mountain massifs and gravel plains. After passing the Kuiseb Rivier Bridge, you leave the park area.

Welwitchia Drive

The “Welwitschia Mirabilis” is probably the most famous plant in Namibia. She is about 1000 years old, in some cases also older. in 1859, the ‘living fossil’ was first discovered by the Austrian botanist Dr. Welwitsch and therefore named after him. The Welwitschia plant has only two leaves, which, however, are frayed by the wind over the years. It absorbs the water necessary for its growth via the humidity.

Welwitschias grow exclusively in the middle part of the Namib, about 40 to 120 kilometers from the coast. You can find the strange plants on the signposted Welwitschia Drive. A more interesting sight is the ride leads the bizarre, almost vegetation-free “lunar landscape” along the Swakop Riviera. Around 450 million years ago, soft rock layers were deposited here, into which the river ate its way.

The scenic highlight in the Namib Naukluft Park is the drive to the Sossusvlei. It is located in the middle of the central Namib dunes, which make up the largest part of the park with an area of about 32,000 square kilometers.

Swakopmund was of great importance as a port during the German colonial period. Since the coastal waters are actually too shallow, a protected bay is missing and the surf is too strong, this attempt has failed.

Today Swakopmund is a popular holiday town for visitors offering many tourist attractions.

Swakopmund’s surrounding area also has a lot to offer. Particularly attractive are trips along the magnificent dune-lined coast, both to Walvis Bay, located 30 kilometers to the south, with its peaceful lagoon. The lagoon is a bird paradise. Especially impressive are the flamingos, which are usually very numerous near the shore looking for crayfish.

On a clear day, you can see the striking black and white lighthouse on the tip of the headland in the northwest of the lagoon.

In addition, sea salt is produced in Walvis Bay. 400,000 tons of high-quality salt are extracted annually on the 3,500 hectare salt fields

Dune 7

Sandboarding is permitted on the approximately 130-meter-high sand dune. Pure quadbike tours are also possible, one-hour or two-hour. Since it is easy to get lost in the almost endless dune world, quadbiking should only be done in the company of a guide.

Historic buildings

The beautiful historical buildings in Swakopmund – Hohenzollern House, Woermann House, Old District Court, Princess Rupprecht’s home, cable fair, “Knight’s Castle” – can be easily got to know during a stroll through the city.

Crystal Gallery Swakopmund

The Crystal Gallery in Swakopmund, on the corner of Tobias Hainyeko and Theo-Ben Gurirab Avenue, is definitely worth a visit. In modern designed rooms, the entire variety of ores and minerals to be found in Namibia is exhibited here, tourmalines, amethysts, aquamarines, dioptase, quartzes and much more. Particularly impressive is a giant quartz weighing 14 tons, the crystal is 3 meters wide and just as high, and the exposure took several years.

North of Swakopmund : Henties Bay, Cape Cross

A road leads directly along the beach to Henties Bay, and then to Cape Cross to the mouth of the Ugab River. This is where the Skeleton Coast National Park begins

Henties Bay is a fishing paradise and is fully dedicated to fishing tourism.

Cape Cross is a popular tourist destination, especially because of the nearby seal colony. At times, more than 100,000 dwarf fur seals, also called “eared seals”, gather here . You can get quite close to the animals via a wooden footbridge. The rather unpleasant stench is not for people with sensitive stomachs.

Cape Cross is part of the Dorob National Park, which was proclaimed in 2010. In the language of the Damara, Dorob means “water that sinks in the sand”.

The dunes in the Namib Desert were formed over the course of many millions of years. Sand,which was constantly washed into the sea by the Orange River, was transported northwards along the west coast by the cold Benguela Current. The surf pushed the sand ashore. Coastal dunes were formed, which were shifted inland by the wind. The wind is still constantly shifting the sand of the shifting dunes

Namibia’s scenic highlight in the middle of the Namib Desert is the Sossusvlei in the Namib Naukluft Park – is a salt-encrusted clay depression surrounded by mighty sand dunes. In 2013, the area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The dunes in the Sossusvlei sometimes reach heights of 300 meters and more and are therefore among the highest in the world. The record is held by the 350-meter-high “Big Daddy” or “Big Mama”.

The Tsauchab River has created as a gorge millions of years ago with steep and almost vertical conglomerate rock walls rising upwards, sometimes up to 30 meters. The incision is only a few meters wide. This is the nearby Sesriem Canyon. The Tsauchab Rivier supplies the water after a good rainfall, especially from the Naukluft mountains through the canyon to the Sossusvlei. This event is extremely rare.

The Etosha National Park covers an area of over 22,000 square kilometers and was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1907. In the center is an extensive salt pan, about 5,000 square kilometers in size, surrounded by grass savannas, light bushland in the west and dry forest in the northeast.

Gravel roads lead to the waterholes, where it is best to observe the game. There are three major state rest camps, Okaukuejo in the central part of the national Park, Namutoni in the east and the Halali Camp in between.

Almost the entire range of African game is represented in the park.

Etosha National Park is open all year round, every day from sunrise to sunset. At nightfall you have to be in one of the rest camps or leave the park beforehand.