Windhoek
Visit the State Museum in the Alte
Feste (Old Fort), with its excellent collection of photos and memorabilia…stroll
across the street to the Owela Museum, housing natural
history exhibits…shop for Namibian handicrafts,
including jewelry, textiles, basketwork, carvings and sculpture.
Swakopmund
Stroll along the Promenade and Jetty for sweeping
views of the bay and lighthouse…check out the classic German
Colonial architecture in buildings like the Lutheran Church, opposite
the Old German School…go dune-boarding and sightseeing in the massive sand
dunes surrounding Swakopmund on a daytrip…have a refreshing beer
in one of the many traditional German beer gardens.
Environs
Go birdwatching in the calm waters of Walvis Bay,
Namibia's primary trading port…admire the stunning colors and wonderful
geology of the Namib Naukluft National Park, Southern
Africa's largest expanse of conserved wilderness -- and, of course, in the south
of the park are the great sand dunes of Sossusvlei…visit
Skeleton Coast National Park, an eerie landscape
that has the remains of many unfortunate shipwrecks…visit Namib
Desert, a sparsely populated region hosting unusual people, plants and
animals that have adapted to this unusual and challenging land…visit with
the Himba people in Kaokoland…see the flat-topped
mountains and fertile valleys of Damaraland, one
of Namibia's most stunning areas…admire the rock engravings at Twylfelfontein
-- over 3000 petroglyphs depict animals, human footprints, and animal tracks…spend
several nights at Etosha National Park to see the
waterhole at Okakuejo that attracts black rhino,
antelopes, dik dik, wildebeest, impala, and more…see the Fish
River Canyon and its resident wildlife, including eagles, leopard, lynx,
baboon, and birds…spend a night in Luderitz,
a classically Bavarian town that became prosperous
from the nearby diamond mines during the peak of German colonial activity.
