Don’t much like to fly? Maybe the wonders of Namibia will convince you. So much of the best of this spectacular, vast land of contrasts is only accessible by air. There’s nothing quite like cruising low over the endless stretches of parched landscape following behind a herd of black rhino or a quick fly-by of a dozing flock of flamingos amid the desert sands.
Wedged between the Kalahari and the southern Atlantic, Namibia is a chance to explore the spirit of this wide-open continent and discover the wilder side of Africa, where only the sporadic roar of a lion or cackle of hyena punctuates the silence of the night.
A short, comfortable flight south from the capital, Windhoek, takes you into the ochre stained lands of Sossusvlei, a rather inhospitable clay pan surrounded by some of the highest sand dunes in the world. Deep in the desert of the Namib-Naukluft Park the awesomely giant rusted waves of sand just beg to be climbed, and the view from the top is well worth every slippery step of the 300-metre trek. The sun rises and literally flows over the sharp peaks throwing transient shapes and shadows into a kaleidoscopic of changing colours and...