Author: Chard

Namibia is one of the easiest African countries to travel with children, mainly because most of it carries little to no malaria risk and because self driving lets you set the pace entirely around them. The constraints are lodge minimum…

Omaruru is Namibia's arts town and the site of its first winery, a settlement of around 14,000 people strung along a usually dry riverbed lined with camel thorns, halfway between Swakopmund and Etosha. Kristall Kellerei began operating in 1990, the…

Otjiwarongo is the junction town of northern Namibia, sitting where the roads to Etosha, Waterberg and Damaraland separate, and almost every visitor passes through it. Its name means the place of fat cattle in Otjiherero. The Cheetah Conservation Fund, the…

Namibia's visa rules changed on 1 April 2025 and a great deal of published advice has not caught up. Nationals of 32 countries that previously entered visa free, including most of Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and…

These two cost roughly the same and offer entirely different trips. A 19 day Namibian self drive and a 23 day South African one both start around 3,200 US dollars per person sharing. South Africa gives you cities, wine, coast…

Namibian food is a collision of German colonial baking, Afrikaner braai culture and indigenous cooking, held together by game meat that is excellent and cheap by any international standard. Oryx, kudu and springbok are on menus everywhere. The beer is…

Nkasa Rupara National Park is Namibia's largest protected wetland, around 320 square kilometres of channels, reed beds and islands where the Kwando River becomes the Linyanti at the southern tip of the Zambezi Region. It holds close to a thousand…

Ongava is a 30,000 hectare private reserve sharing a boundary with Etosha National Park's southern edge, holding both black and white rhino and one of Namibia's most substantial wildlife research operations. Guests get guided night drives, walking safaris and rhino…

Two geological oddities sit within sight of each other about six kilometres east of Twyfelfontein. The Organ Pipes are a 100 metre stretch of four metre dolerite columns in a small gorge. Burnt Mountain is a ridge of shale that…

Outjo is the last fuel before Etosha's Andersson Gate, 108 kilometres south of the park on the C38, and that single fact is why every visitor entering from the south passes through it. It is a small farming town with…