Llama Travel, a renowned London-based tour operator, partners with Sense of Africa to offer exceptional Namibia tours for UK travellers. Paige, travel consultant for Llama Travel , had the opportunity to visit Namibia earlier this year. In this blog, we asked her to share her personal experience as well as tips and recommendations based on her trip.

Paige’s Trip: Namibia
I was blown away by the pure beauty of Namibia, and it has become one of my favourite to visit. This is one of the world’s least densely populated countries, with some of Africa’s most abundant wildlife. It is one of Africa’s youngest nations, with the world’s oldest rock art.
On our Namibia holidays you travel by road and rough tracks to experience the wilderness and incredible landscapes and to have the opportunity for the best wildlife-watching. It’s a true once-in-a-lifetime holiday destination – and these are my highlights:

Damaraland
My favourite place was Damaraland in north-central Namibia, situated between Etosha National Park and the coast. It is unspoiled, dramatic, and rugged, and there’s no one around. You can find desert-adapted elephants roaming against backdrops of impressive rock formations, and there are thousands of fascinating rock engravings in Twyfelfontein, estimated to be around 6,000 years old.

Etosha National Park
Etosha National Park, is renowned for its stunning landscapes and diverse wildlife. The park is dominated by the vast Etosha Pan, a salt pan that draws large herds of animals, including elephants, lions, and rhinos, especially during the dry season. I really think the sunsets here are breathtaking, and the tranquility of the park definitely adds to its unique charm.

Sossusvlei & Deadvlei
The expanse of huge, rolling sand dunes found in the Namib-Naukluft National Park is awesome. In Sossusvlei, I climbed the rusty-red Dune 45 and then explored Deadvlei, a bleached white clay pan with dead camelthorn trees up to 600 years old. The dead trees with the orange dune background make for some stunning photos.

Desert-adapted wildlife: Namibia offers amazing big game viewing, including desert-adapted lions, rhinos, elephants, and giraffes that you will not find in other safari destinations. This makes Namibia a perfect destination for both for first-time safari and for veterans.

Game Drives
In many places, the game is sparse, which makes it all the more rewarding when you see something, and it also means that in most areas you can walk quite safely. Namibia has the largest free-roaming rhino population in Africa, and you can track rhinos on foot, which is a completely thrilling experience and highly recommended! Seeing a white rhino up close in the Kalahari Desert is one of my fondest memories.

Epic Road Trip
Our Namibia holiday covers long distances, and bumpy gravel roads are common, with some journeys taking up the majority of the day. However, this is one of the great things about visiting Namibia, as the journeys are stunning, with plenty of good photography opportunities, and ever-changing landscapes ranging from mountains to red sand dunes and endless grass plains with acacia trees. There are also stops where you get out and the guide will point out something fascinating. Our tour vehicle was very comfortable, and I was lucky as everybody had a window seat, although this is not strictly necessary as windows are large, so you get a good view from anywhere in the vehicle. It is not guaranteed that all passengers will have a window seat for the whole journey, and if there are more people than window seats, the guide will move people around to make sure everyone gets a window seat for some of the journeys.
Guides

On a trip like this, a good guide can make a real difference, and I was fortunate that Herunga, our guide, was extremely knowledgeable, great at spotting wildlife, and made sure everybody was well looked after. He got to know what we were interested in, for example taking us on a detour to show us the welwitschia plant, endemic to the Namib desert.
There were so many highlights of my trip, but what I love most about Namibia is the diversity of landscapes, the year-round sunshine, and the true wilderness experience.