Windhoek + Swakopmund: the highest dunes in the world and a German town on the Atlantic
Namibia is visa-free, empty and built for self-driving. The red dunes of Sossusvlei, a foggy ocean and a safari in Etosha, all in one route.
Why Namibia
It is one of the emptiest countries on earth: two and a half million people across an area larger than two Frances. The roads are good, crime is low by African standards, and the infrastructure assumes independent travellers with a car. And the landscapes exist nowhere else: dunes three hundred metres high, dead trees on white clay, shipwrecks on the shore.
What to see
Sossusvlei — the red dunes of the Namib, the oldest desert on the planet; at dawn people climb Dune 45 or Big Daddy, and below lies Deadvlei with black acacias that died nine hundred years ago and did not rot because it is too dry. Swakopmund is a town of German architecture squeezed between the desert and the cold Atlantic, from where people drive quad bikes over the dunes and go to Walvis Bay for flamingos and seals. Etosha in the north is a safari around a giant salt pan where the animals come to the waterholes themselves.
How this works in practice
Windhoek is the entry point and where you pick up the car. Distances are long, four to six hours between sights, and a substantial part of the roads is gravel — which has its own driving technique and its own punctures, so take a 4x4 and check the spare (two is better). Fuel stations are rare: the rule is to fill up at every opportunity rather than when the light comes on.
How many days
Fewer than ten makes no sense: three will go on driving alone. A sensible minimum is two days around Sossusvlei, three in Swakopmund with its surroundings, three or four in Etosha, plus the days on the road. Book accommodation ahead: there are few lodges and they fill up in season.
When to go
May–October, the dry season: in Etosha the animals gather at waterholes, the roads are passable, the nights are cold and the days warm. From December to March it is hot with possible rain that washes out the gravel. The coast is cool and foggy all year — the cold Benguela current makes Swakopmund the place in Africa where you need a jacket.
Sossusvlei: catching the sunrise
The park gates open at dawn, and from them it is still about an hour's drive to the dunes themselves. Anyone sleeping outside at Sesriem will meet the sun on the road; that is why the places inside the park, by the gates, are prized and booked early. The last five kilometres to Deadvlei are deep sand, passable only in four-wheel drive or by shuttle. Big Daddy is climbed along the ridge in about an hour and descended by running down the slope in minutes — that is the entertainment.
The Skeleton Coast and Walvis Bay
North of Swakopmund begins the coast where a cold current meets the desert: permanent fog, stranded ships, and a seal colony at Cape Cross of several tens of thousands, which you hear and smell long before you see. To the south lies the lagoon of Walvis Bay with flamingos and pelicans, from which boats go out to dolphins and seals. Between the ocean and the dunes here there are literally a hundred metres, and driving quad bikes over them is the local classic.
Practical matters
Namibia is visa-free for a Russian passport, up to 90 days. Driving is on the left. Tap water is drinkable in the towns, but a supply is essential in the desert. Mobile signal follows the main roads and disappears in the parks. And the main rule: do not drive the highways after dark — animals come onto the road, and that is the most common cause of accidents.
Moscow → Windhoek → Swakopmund
Route and nights go into the form — adjust the date and passengers.