Damaraland to the Coast – My Kind of Camping

After 2 days at Etosha National Park, on Tuesday, November 14th, we packed up our little green pea of a car and headed west through Damaraland, making our way towards the Namibian coast on the Atlantic Ocean. Again, we saw no people around and barely any cars passed, but we did have to slow down now and again for donkeys, goats and baboons crossing the road. We planned our fuel stops wisely because to run out of gas would involve us walking for 100 Km to the nearest town. We have also found good snacks for the car rides – Simba chips (our favorite, chutney flavored) and biltong, dried meat (like beef jerky) that comes in every variety imaginable (our favorite, chili beef).

Damaraland, a huge and sparsely populated (by now, hopefully you’re getting the picture) area in the north central to western part of Namibia, is named after the Damara tribe. The Damara are thought to be one of the oldest inhabitants of Namibia, after the Bushmen (the San), and are particularly known for their “clicking” tongue. Our guide on Tuesday and Wednesday there, Actung, is Damara and he taught us the sounds and symbols for the four types of clicks they use – l, ll, !, +/- – as well as how they speak these clicks before and after some words, but not others. We could not stop listening to him talk; it is truly a fascinating language.

Damaraland is still considered desert, but the landscape changed dramatically pretty shortly after we began heading west. Some of Namibia’s mountain ranges, the Spitzkoppe and Brandberg, rise dramatically out of gravely plains in Damaraland. We spent Tuesday night at the Mowani Mountain Camp – one of the most unique places I’ve ever stayed. There are 12 “tents,” each scattered about and nestled in between huge red granite boulders (pictured, looking into our tent). The dining and reception areas are out-of-doors under mushroom-shaped thatched huts. We looked out from the balcony of our tent across miles of golden plains, interrupted by huge boulders or mountain peaks, and covered by spotless bright blue sky. Sunset is a big activity at Mowani and we, along with the other 8 guests staying there that Tuesday night, walked up to the top of a boulder where they had bean bag chairs for us, and served cocktails and appetizers, as we watched the sun set. (Pictured above, me at sunset.)

We did not find the activities at Damaraland to be the most thrilling of what we had experienced thus far in Namibia, but going there is worth the trip to see the landscape and stay at Mowani Mountain Camp. With Actung, our guide, we hiked around Twyfelfontein, a sight with over 2,500 rock engravings, mostly of game species, thought to be 5,000 years old; the Organ Pipes, a series of dolerite columns which made for fun black & white photographs; and Burnt Mountain, a section of a mountain range formed by dolerite rocks that cooled some 130 million years ago after volcanic activity in the area. Before we left on Wednesday morning, Actung took us out to track desert elephants. The desert elephants are unique because of their extra long legs that allow them to cover a much greater range each day and their ability to drink water only every 3-4 days.

After lunch at Mowani on Wednesday, November 15th, we drove another 3 hours out of Damaraland to reach the Skeleton Coast. About halfway through the drive, we left the plains and mountain ranges of Damaraland and hit white sand desert. The landscape along Skeleton Coast is bleak, eerie, isolating and desolate. As our road ran smack into the Atlantic, we encountered fog and cold, gusty winds. Without any people, cars, or buildings around, we felt that we had hit the edge of the earth. That feeling was reinforced at our lodge that night, the Cape Cross Lodge, a slight distance north of the Cape Cross Seal Reserve and located right on the Atlantic Ocean. Think of the movie The Shining and you’ll understand how we felt there. There were only 8 guests staying in the lodge that night, there was nothing and no one else around us (other than 100,000 seals at the seal reserve), and it remained foggy and cold throughout our stay. We made it there in time for dinner and the next morning, after breakfast, we could not leave fast enough to drive down the coast to the little, picturesque town of Swakopmund.