August 23: Tinkas in Namib-Naukluft National Park

After leaving Daan Vijoen Wildlife Reserve outside of Windhoek, we headed west and camped for a night in the Namib-Naukluft National Park en route to Walvis Bay on the coast:

Ordinarily I might not post a blog entry for a one-night stand en route to a destination, but our campsite was so awesome that I decided to. We camped at a remote and exclusive desert campsite called Rock Arch in the Namib-Naukluft National Park about 30 km on a 4×4 track off the main route to Swakopmund on the coast (n.orth of Walvis Bay). This was desert camping at its finest, and Ki was especially at home and delighted being the old desert rat that she is, owing to her days researching pronghorn antelope in southern Arizona.

The Namib-Naukluft National Park is located in western Namibia and ecompasses over 19,000 square miles of the Namib desert, which is purportedly the oldest desert on Earth. The Namib extends from the Atlantic Ocean east to the Great Escarpment that runs down and around the southern part of Africa, mostly in South Africa. You may recall from last year my visit to the Drakensberg escarpment on the northeast coast of South Africa. The Drakensberg is part of the same Great Escarpment that wraps around South Africa. The Namib is a true desert, with an average of only 4 inches of precipitation per year, which comes in the form of coastal fog that warms and falls as rain. More on the spectacular dunes in the Namib in a subsequent post.

The Namib-Naukluft Park is one of the largest wildlife parks in all of Africa. The orgins of the Park date to 1907, but there have been several substantial additions over time. The Park now runs 370 miles north to south along the coast and, thanks to an addition in 1979, it includes 1,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastal waters as a marine reserve. This is a really big Park; we have nothing in the States to compare in terms of size.

Ok, back to my original justification for this post – a one-night stand to a surprisingly awesome desert campsite. Our campsite was remote, private and desert camping at its finest. Our site was perched on the top of a rocky outcrop (or kopje, or koppie) perhaps only 50 feet above the plains, but enough to afford us spectacular views of the surrounding desert. There was a grotto to sit under for shade with seating and a really nice loo below the koppie. I will let the photos do the rest of the talking.

Off to Walvis Bay and a trip to Sandwich Bay. See you there!