Namibia

Namibia is Africa’s great landscape destination — a country where the scenery is so dramatic and otherworldly that simply travelling through it is an experience in itself. The Namib Desert, from which the country takes its name, is the world’s oldest desert and among its most spectacular. The vast orange dunes of Sossusvlei — some reaching over 300 metres, the highest dunes on earth — glow at sunrise and sunset with an intensity that is almost impossible to describe. Dead Vlei, a white clay pan studded with 900-year-old dead camel thorn trees and surrounded by towering dunes, is one of the world’s most photographed landscapes.

Etosha National Park in the north is one of Africa’s finest game reserves. A vast salt pan at its heart creates a stark, silver backdrop against which wildlife — lion, leopard, cheetah, elephant, black rhino, oryx and hundreds of bird species — can be spotted with remarkable ease at the park’s floodlit waterholes, even at night.

The Skeleton Coast in the north-west is a remote and elemental wilderness where the cold Benguela Current meets the desert in a perpetual mist. Shipwrecks, seal colonies and desert-adapted lion and elephant roam this extraordinary coastline accessible only by small aircraft. The Fish River Canyon in the south is the world’s second largest canyon — a 160-kilometre gorge of breathtaking scale.

Namibia is also one of Africa’s most stable and well-organised countries for self-drive travel, with excellent roads connecting the main highlights. The country’s wide open spaces, clear skies — among the best in the world for stargazing — and low tourist numbers make it an exceptional choice for those who want Africa on their own terms.