A Wild Namibia Safari

Five Moraway Adventures travelers recently joined Moraway owners Chris and Alexis on an epic road trip across Namibia, traversing nearly 1,400 miles of stunning desert landscapes over 11 adventurous days with our phenomenal local guide, Jason. We sauntered across the sand dunes of Sossusvlei, tracked highly endangered black rhinoceros in Damaraland, slept under star-studded skies, and encountered ancient rock art, traditional Himba people, and a variety of desert-adapted wildlife like elephants, lions, oryx, and giraffe along the way.

Enjoy this photoblog highlighting the best parts of our trip!

Our first destination was two nights in the most iconic location in Namibia, the great sand sea of Sossusvlei. Located in the southern part of the Namib Desert, Sossusvlei boasts some of the world’s highest sand dunes, providing endless opportunities for exploration and photo ops as the ever-shifting light and shadows play across the landscape. We got an early start to our hike to beat the heat and we were rewarded with surreal views from the summit of Big Daddy (a monstrous, 1000+ foot tall dune), a gleeful sand-skiing descent down the dune, and then a mesmerizing trek through the ghostly clay pan of Dead Vlei. We based our explorations out of the delightful Camp Sossus, complete with exquisite food, breathtaking desert panoramas, and nightly rooftop sleepouts in our starbeds under infinite dark skies.

After a picturesque road trip to the Atlantic coast, we headed inland to the rugged mountains of Damaraland to track desert-adapted wildlife. Located in north-central Namibia, Damaraland is an untamed expanse of geologic wonders. The luxurious Onduli Ridge was a fantastic base camp for our adventures, and we enjoyed exploring one of the largest concentrations of ancient rock art in Africa at Twyfelfontein, home to over 2,000 petroglyphs carved into the rock. Taking an adventurous, all-day 4 x 4 drive through some of the most awe-inspiring landscapes on Earth was a highlight of our trip, especially because the drive included spectacular sightings of desert elephants, ostrich, and springbok, plus a picnic lunch surrounded by a journey of desert-adapted giraffe.

We wound down our time in Damaraland at a simple tented camp that positioned us to track critically endangered black rhinos with the rangers who protect them from poaching. Black rhinos are notoriously skittish and aggressive, so it was a real treat to stealthily approach one on foot under the expert guidance of the rangers. We positioned ourselves a couple hundred yards away from the rhino, where he couldn’t see us due to his poor eyesight, and we enjoyed watching the 30-year-old male nap, browse shrubs, and live his best rhino life surrounded by the breathtakingly rugged landscape he calls home.

From Damaraland we headed north to Etosha National Park, making an afternoon stop to visit a family group of Himba people along the way. The Himba are indigenous people of northern Namibia and southern Angola, and they live a semi-nomadic lifestyle, following the rains to determine where to grow their crops and graze their livestock. Our local guide and translator showed us around the village, and it was fascinating to learn about the religion, social structure, and customs of these traditional people. Despite the language barrier, we enjoyed a lot of laughs with our gracious hosts, and photo ops with the women and kids elicited a lot of excitement and smiles.

he final stop on our grand adventure was several days spent viewing wildlife at Ongava Reserve and the adjacent Etosha National Park. Ongava provided phenomenal lion sightings, plus nightly visits to the camp waterhole from black rhinos, white rhinos, and hyenas. Having dinner each night at Andersson’s Camp while watching the rhinos drink, browse, and have minor turf wars just a couple hundred feet away was truly incredible, and it was really cool to go inside the hide adjacent to the waterhole and get so close to the rhinos that we could hear a baby black rhino mewling like a kitten (who knew?!?).

Etosha National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa, and it’s known for phenomenal game-viewing around the water holes during the dry season. We had one day where the game viewing was so good that our morning drive extended until 2:30 p.m. In addition to seeing the seldom-sighted African wildcat and watching a large breeding herd of elephants splashing and playing in a waterhole, a highlight of that day was stopping at a waterhole and realizing that we could see red hartebeest, blue wildebeest, oryx, giraffe, springbok, kudu, ostrich, lapwings, pied crow, and South African shellducks all at once while scanning the horizon. Seeing so many different species mingling at one time is the quintessential Etosha experience!

Having traveled all across southern and east Africa over the past 20 years, I’m reminded that Namibia offers a truly unique safari experience unlike anything else in Africa. Namibia is a vast, untamed, remote, and breathtakingly beautiful destination that beckons those looking to immerse themselves in nature while escaping the crowds. The stark landscapes, desert-adapted plants and wildlife, endemic species, remote and exclusive accommodations, and rich cultural encounters set the stage for the adventure of a lifetime. Namibia makes a fantastic destination unto itself, and it also combines well with the wildlife rich waterways of Botswana. When you are ready to embark on your own exploration of Namibia, give us a call to help make your dream trip a reality!

Your wild adventure aficionado,

Alexis Alloway