Sand Dunes & Himba Tribes

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In Windhoek, we stayed at Cardboard Box Backpackers. We met Eitan, an Israeli & Toshi and Yutaka, two Japanese Backpackers. Together we rented a Toyota Corolla for a week to travel around Namibia. We also rented Camping gear, as Namibia is very expensive to travel on a budget.

We first made our way north from Windhoek and our first stop was Ojitotongwe Cheetah Park near Kamanjab. As soon as we arrived at the White Namibian Farm, we were greeted by three Cheetahs walking around the Farm. These were tame Cheetahs, but we were still nervous to get too close to them. While we were waiting for the owner to take us on a Cheetah tour, we were busy clicking pictures of the tame Cheetahs. In the end, we were unable to go on the Wild Cheetah tour due to disagreements on price with the owner's wife.

We camped at Kamanjab Rest Camp that night. Early next morning, due to heavy rain at the camp site, we had to seek shelter in the car and rest rooms for couple of hours. The next day, we headed to meet the Himba Tribe. Himbas are nomadic tribe that were part of the Herero Tribe in Northern Namibia. Himba tribe is probably the last tribe that still has maintained its traditional lifestyle and resisted outside influences, including Christian missionaries. Himbas do not believe in monogamous relationships. The men and women of the group live together and the children are the responsibility of the group. We spent couple of hours with the Himbas and bought some jewelry from them. Alison tried to bring back a cute Himba baby, but we didn't want to start a war ;-)


From Himba land, we headed south to Twyfelfontien to see the rock carvings. It is the largest collection of rock carvings in Southern Africa and estimated to be around 4000+ years old. The rock carvings were used to teach children about animals so they could learn to hunt on their own. Due to recent heavy rains, our car got stuck in mud a couple of times requiring help from locals. We then headed to Brandberg, also called the Fire mountain due to the color of the granite face of the mountain at sunset. We camped in a beautiful location facing the mountains and had a colorful sunset.

The next day, we headed to Spitzkoppe to see the giant Granite rock. It is supposed to second to Ayers Rock in size. We took a few pictures and headed to Swakopmund, a pretty picturesque beachside town on the Atlantic ocean. It is the only town where we have seen the yellow sand dunes meet the ocean.

We headed further south to Sossusvlei, the site of the world's largest sand dunes. We camped the night at Sesreim and rose early next morning to see the sunrise from atop the dunes. The burnt orange colored dunes are more impressive than the post card pictures we had seen in Windhoek and much bigger than the dunes in Morocco. Walking in the Sea of Orange sand dunes was the highlight of the Namibian Adventure. We hiked 3 kms to get to Dead Vlei , where many dead trees line the desert floor. It was a surreal sight and one of the most photographed scenes in Namibia.

After Sossusvlei, we headed back to Windhoek. Along the way, we saw another Cheetah Farm. Apparently, they had 3 cheetahs , but one died, one ran away and one is in the cage. We decided to skip the caged cheetah so that we could get back to Windhoek before dark. After a week of wilderness camping, we were ready for some comfort, including a good Indian dinner at the only Indian restaurant in Namibia - run by an IT engineer from Kerala.


Travelling with people from different cultures and budgets teaches one about compromise and communication. After bading goodbye to Yutaka, Eitan and Toshi, we did 20 hours on a comfortable Intercape bus and arrived to Capetown, South Africa. We plan to rent a car for next couple of weeks to travel around South Africa before our African trip ends and we have to come back to New York !

FYI, we also added pictures to the earlier Vic Falls & Botswana blogs.

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