Namibia: Naukluft Mountains travel tips

The Naukluft Mountains are a massif in central Namibia, forming the easternmost part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park. The mountains are known for their wildlife, including the rare klipspringers, mountain zebras and leopards, as well as for their Quivertrees, clear rock pools, their many small streams and waterfalls. Toast Coetzer from South Africa's outdoor & travel magazine "Go!" visited the area and shot the following video footage. Cheers & kudos!

1. Buellsport Guest Farm is located 50km south of Solitaire and about 250km southwest of Windhoek. Hiking is the main acitivity at the farm.
2. The Quivertree Gorge hiking trail is Buellsport Guest Farm's most popular trail. The trail is about 5km long.
3. Camping at Naukluft Camp (booking via Namibia Wildlife Resorts) in the Namib-Naukluft National Park. The camp is know for its hiking trails, nature walks and for bird watching.
3. Tsauchab River Camp offers a family hide-out and thatch roof chalets, exclusive and private camp sites, tented bush camp, restaurant on request, farm shop, fire wood, meats and many more. All non guided activates are free for all our guests, hiking trails and 4x4 trails, natural springs, sundowner view points and swimming pool.
4. Neuras Winery, the world's driest vineyard
5. Tsauchabfontein, just down the road/river from Tsauchab River Camp, is the place to go to if you are looking for the best rock pools in the area.

Video: Namib Desert Photo Safari

There is actually not much to say - the photographs in the following video are speaking for themselves... Follow wildlife photographer Martin Harvey on his photo safari through the Namib Desert in Namibia and get to see some amazing footage of landscapes & wildlife. Sit back, switch the video to fullscreen and enjoy the next 5min! Kudos Martin Harvey!

Video: Incredible Namibia

Ok, don't listen to the music, but focus on the pictures and videos and you'll get blown away by the natural beauty of Namibia's landscapes... simply incredible! Kudos to photographer Martin Harvey!

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Video: The invisible light of the Namib desert

One of the facts about the Namib desert in Namibia I have never heard about - the invisible light in the Namib desert:

Visible light is just a tiny fraction of all the light in the universe. At either end of the visible spectrum there is something very mysterious - invisible light. Cosmologist Prof. Justin Jonas has come to the spectacular Nambib desert not to see, but to feel this light...

Namib desert facts...

The Namib Desert in the south-western African country of Namibia has endured arid or semi-arid conditions for at least 55 million years and is therefore the oldest desert in the world.
The name Namib comes from the Nama word for a vast place.
The Namib Desert is stretching from the Uinab River in the north to Lüderitz in the south, from the Namib Escarpment in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west and covers an area of around 81,000km². The desert is roughly 1,600km long (north - south) and between 50 - 150km (east - west) wide.


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The Namib Desert is the only desert in Africa inhabited by elephant, rhino, giraffe and lion.
The Namib-Naukluft Park, encompassing part of the Namib Desert and the Naukluft mountain range, is the largest game park in Africa and the fourth largest in the world.
In the Park more moisture comes in as a fog off the Atlantic Ocean than falls as rain, with the average 106 millimeters of rainfall per year.
Although not typical, one of the most famous inhabitants of the Namib Desert is the welwitschia plant. Individual Welwitschia plants are estimated to be upwards of 2,500 years old, have crowns of more than 1m in diameter, and leaves that stretch up to 2m long. The plant is considered to be the longest-living member of the plant kingdom. Back in the days Charles Darwin called the plant platypus of the plant kingdom.

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Amazing video about Namibia's desert elephants

Namibia is home to a unique population of so-called desert elephants that have adapted to the arid, and sometimes inhospitable, climate of the Namib desert. They are mostly found in the Damaraland region in the northwest part of the country. Those elephants can go for days without drinking water, but thanks to their amazing memory they acutally know where to find the rare, but essential, water in the desert.


Thx to Johan from planyoursafari.com for telling me about the vid!

Volunteer project: Desert Elephant conservation in Namibia >>
This project takes you to Namibia, Africa and the north-western regions of the Namib Desert, traditionally known as ‘Damaraland’. Here in this harsh tribal wilderness that runs parallel to the Skeleton Coast National Park, a small population of desert-adapted elephants have come into conflict with the local human population, and it is the aim of this volunteer project to manage the conflict and assist in its resolution
This project is not about being an observer of conservation from the comfort of a game drive vehicle. Volunteers will spend days out in the desert on patrol, camping wild and living close to the earth, elephants and people.
This project’s emphasis is on the building of protective structures around communal water points, creation of additional water points for elephants, assisting with, and teaching the farmers how they can financially benefit from tourism in the area, researching elephant movements, distribution and compiling identikits on herds and individuals. All work takes place in the vicinity of the rustic base camp in the Ugab River, at the foot of the majestic Brandberg.

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