NamibRand Nature Reserve (2)

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Conservation on a sustainable basis is the reserve's foremost priority.
Tourism is strictly limited and controlled, with entrance fees and bed levies going directly into a fund to maintain and preserve the reserve.


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In 1992, the NamibRand Nature Reserve was registered as a non-profit private reserve.
With the registration, all current landowners signed an agreement and adopted a constitution which sets the land aside for conservation from that paint onward.
The reserve is self-sustaining through high quality eco-tourism.


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NamibRand Nature Reserve (1)

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The NamibRand Nature Reserve was established to help protect and conserve the unique ecology and wildlife of the southwest Namib Desert.
It is one of southern Africa's largest private nature reserves, stretching over 2,100 sq. km.
Just south of Sesriem, the NamibRand shares a 100 km border with the Namib-Naukluft National Park in the west and Nubib Mountains to the east.


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Nearly all facets of the Namib Desert are found on the reserve, creating a kaleidoscope of living colors.
The Reserve originated in 1984 with Windhoek businessman Albi Bruckner's dream to extend the frontiers of the Namib Desert by incorporating a number of former sheep farms into a land specifically used for a wildlife sanctuary, free from farm fencing and other farming paraphernalia.

Several drought years proved to be too difficult for livestock ranching, and the poaching of wild game increased considerably, however decreased with the oncoming of plentiful rains in the following season.


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Kuiseb Canyon

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Along the Gamsberg Pass on the C14 from Walvis Bay to Solitaire, Kuiseb Canyon is home to the ephemeral Kuiseb River.
Although there is water in the area for most of the year, it rarely flows in the dry season and is more like much of Namibia's other rivers that simply aren't any thing but a sandy river bed.


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During the rainy season, however, the story can be quite different.
The river can fill and flow except for around Gobabeb where the water begins to lose momentum and seep back into the earth.

This is the area that Henno Martin and Hermann Korn went into hiding during the Second World War.
They resisted their Nazi governments call to fight and went into the wilderness where they learned to live off of the land, killing, slaughtering, and dressing animals.
Their story is rather intriguing and is told in Henno Martin's book "The Sheltering Desert".


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The Erongo Mountains & the Spitzkoppe (2)

The nearby Erongo massif succeeded in erupting as a true volcano, belching out molten rock and ash for a believed 20 million years, before collapsing, forming today's caldera.
Further north, Namibia's highest mountain, the Brandberg, ascends nearly 8,320 ft 
(2,600 m) at its highest peak named Konigstein, meaning "King's Rock" in German, above the desert floor.



The mountain is striped with black stripes made of iron and manganese known as "desert varnish".

The Erongo Mountains are home to hundreds of San rock paintings, simple reminders of Namibia's first inhabitants some 6,000 years ago.

Spitzkoppe
Spitzkoppe is near Swakopmund and is easily reached from the B2 road.
If you are interested in camping at Spitzkoppe or wanting a tour guide to take you to the area, check out Spitzkoppe Campsite.
It's a community operated camp and a member of Nacobta.

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The Erongo Mountains & the Spitzkoppe (1)

The Erongo Mountains are just north of the Namib-Naukluft Park, where they rise from the desert floor.

These mountains are uniquely formed as molten magma that never reached the surface and had solidified.



Due to millions of years of erosion, it was eventually exposed.

The main peak of Spitzkoppe now stands at 5,440 ft (1,700 m) above the desert surface and is often referred to as Matterhorn of Namibia.

Tours to Spitzkoppe can be arranged in Swakopmund.

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The Gravel Plains & the Moon Landscape

One of the largest gypsum surfaces in the world, spreading nearly 10,000 sq. km from the sand sea north to the Swakop River.
It is believed the gravel plains' history begins in the sea.
This theory states the Benguela's pantry of plankton is costantly recycling, dying, and drifting to the bottom of the seabed, where the decomposing material releases hydrogen sulphide into the atmosphere.



In the atmosphere it combines with the oxygen to produce a diluted sulphuric acid.
Fog from the coast then transfers this to the alkaline calcrete of the gravel plains.
The exchange of molecules, as an acid and alkaline mix, creates the gypsum that makes the gravel plains so unique.



Over some 80 million years of weathering and erosion, slicing the gypsum surface into a series of inhospitable canyons, resembling the surface of the moon.

The Moon Landscape
When viewing this Moon Landscape, remind yourself that in early history, the earth's surface was at least a kilometer above where you are standing.
Together water, wind, temperature, chemical, and biological erosion took sediment out to sea.

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The Dunes (2)

There is great debate as to whether the dunes are purely created by the sediments washed up from shore, or also from sediment from the Kalahari Desert.
Some geologists believe that a significant amount of the eastern Namib's sediment comes from the red dunes of the Kalahari.

This is possible by the winds blowing in a northeastern fashion during the winter, and consequently the highest dunes and their windward side faces the northeast.

Whatever the case may be, there is no denying the fact that the dunes are special.

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