Author: Chard

Grootfontein is the gateway to Namibia's northeast, the last substantial town before the long run east to Rundu and the Zambezi Region or northeast into Bushmanland and Khaudum. The Hoba Meteorite, the largest intact meteorite on earth, sits about 20…

Namibia is among the safer African countries to travel in, and the risks that actually injure visitors are not the ones they worry about. Driving accounts for more harm than crime and wildlife combined. Malaria concentrates in the far north…

Henties Bay exists because of fishing, a town of holiday houses and caravan pitches on the Skeleton Coast road north of Swakopmund, filling with anglers over the December holidays and quiet the rest of the year. It is the base…

Namibia has three serious multi day trails and a great many good day walks, and the constraint on all of them is heat. The Fish River Canyon trail runs only from May to mid September. The Naukluft trail is regarded…

The Hoba Meteorite near Grootfontein is the largest intact meteorite ever found on earth and the largest naturally occurring piece of iron known on the planet's surface, weighing around 60 tonnes. It fell roughly 80,000 years ago and has never…

The honey badger, known across southern Africa as the ratel, occurs throughout Namibia and is seen by very few visitors. It stands around 30 centimetres at the shoulder, weighs 9 to 16 kilograms, and is among the most powerful African…

Hot air ballooning over the Namib lifts off before sunrise, drifts for about an hour over the dune sea in complete silence and finishes with a sparkling wine breakfast laid out in the desert. One operator has run it at…

Two jackal species occur in Namibia, and one of them you will see constantly while the other you almost certainly will not. Black backed jackal are common countrywide, from the Skeleton Coast where they hunt seal pups to the farmland…

The Kalahari occupies eastern and southeastern Namibia and it is not a true desert, which surprises most visitors. It receives too much rain to qualify, supports grass, camel thorn woodland and substantial wildlife, and is better described as a semi-arid…

Kamanjab is the crossroads of northwestern Namibia, the point where routes to Etosha's western gate, Damaraland, the Kunene and the coast separate. It is a small farming settlement with fuel, a shop and guest farms, and its value is entirely…