Our first stop was the small farming town of Stampriet on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. This town has rich water resevoirs not far under the ground if you can drill through the hard granite. It now provides fresh produce to stores and lodges across the country.
Our next stop was the Quiver Tree Forest and Giant's Playground just outside of Keetmanshoop. I had never visited these sites before and it was well worth the short detour. Apparently, this farm also has a few tame cheetahs(!) but they were MIA during our visit. 😢
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| Quiver Tree Forest |
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| A dusky sunbird enjoying nectar from quiver tree flowers |
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| Giant's Playground. It looks like mounds of large boulders stacked on top of each other, but really small cracks in the rocks have expanded into larger creases that gives them this unique look. |
After that, we continued west to the coastal town of Luderitz, where we visited one of my favorite places in Namibia: Kolmanskop. It is an old, abandoned mining town that has been taken over by the desert. In addition to the solitude, history, and vitage appeal, it is also a photographer's paradise!
On our way back home we passed by the wild desert horses near Aus, and stopped by the Fish River Canyon, the largest canyon in Africa and (by some measurements) second largest in the world.
Everywhere we went we were the only people around. One restaurant had had only one other customer that whole day. For one roadside stall, we were the first customer's they had see in two weeks. Needless to say, they were all very thankful for a few local tourists coming to help support their business. And we were glad to have the entire tourism industry catering just for us.
