Damaraland, Namibia

Damaraland : Traveller's Overview Category : Desert Destinations

Accept the adventurous challenge offered by Damaraland, a vast, untamed ruggedly beautiful region that offers you an exceptional African experience. Here, prehistoric watercourses interweave in open plains and grassland between massive granite koppies and deep gorges and a wealth of discoveries await you.

Local inhabitants, the Damara, Hereros and the Riemvasmakers, have recognised the value of protecting the wildlife on their land and are proud to invite you to visit this beautiful conservation area. With any luck you will spot the rare desert-adapted elephant herds and the endangered black rhino on your game outings in Damaraland. There is an abundance of birdlife and other wildlife roaming the area including giraffe, ostrich and many varieties of buck.

Of course, you have travelled to this enigmatic region to view the extensive rock engravings and paintings such as the ‘White Lady’ of Brandberg and to put your foot into the million-years old Petrified Forest! Keep a sharp eye out for fossils as you go on guided bush walks; many fossil remains have been found at the Doros Meteorite Crater.

The area is characterised by the Brandberg Mountain with a granite face that glows deep red with the setting of the sun, Twyfelfontein with one of the most extensive gallery’s of rock art found in Africa as well as geological features such as the ‘Organ Pipes’, a distinctive set of dolerite pillars exposed through millions of years of erosion, and the Spitzkoppe, remnant of an ancient volcano.

When you choose to visit Damaraland you can combine game viewing with rock art trips, visits to geological wonders with nature discoveries and stay at any number of luxury bush camps.

The Damarland Region is best known for:

Rock Art
This region is home to thousands of rock engravings; some of which could be up to 6 000 years old. This open-air art gallery of engravings and paintings is testament to the rich culture of the region’s previous inhabitants. Most visits centre on visits to the Brandberg Mountains, Namibia’s highest mountains. The main attraction here is Maack’s Shelter with the famous ‘White Lady of the Brandberg’. Today we know that it is a depiction neither of a lady nor a European but it caused much upset when first discovered as theories were put forward about European interaction with the local inhabitants thousands of years before.

The Petrified Forest
This ‘forest’ of tree trunks were swept down by a river in flood in prehistoric times and spent approximately 200 000 years buried in river sand. The combination of the isolation from air and the interaction of sand, water and wood resulted in the ‘petrifaction’ of these massive tree trunks. Today many of them are breaking due to exposure to air but you can still get a sense of the occurrence when you look at the 45m trunks that grew up to 6m in circumference. The trees are estimated to be about 260 million years old.

Desert Adapted Elephant
The desert-adapted elephant is a rare sight in the world today and this region is one of the few that you have a chance of spotting them because of the huge effort that has gone into their conservation. These mighty creatures live in the ancient, mostly dry riverbeds of the region and need to move over vast areas to find water and the resultant food. They can go for a few days without water unlike their slightly larger African elephant counterparts. These hardy survivors of the Namib Desert are a beautiful site to behold.

Off the beaten track:

Go rhino tracking
Go on an adventure of a lifetime to track desert-adapted black rhino in the Damarland region. This area is home to the largest group left of these highly endangered species and poaching is a constant threat to these beautiful animals. Tracking them is a challenge as they move freely over vast tracts of land in search of sustenance and will leave you with a different understanding of the African bush and its inhabitants.

Fly me to the stars
Because of the distance between towns in Namibia, the low population density, low levels of pollution and dry climate giving clear night skies, there is nothing to get in the way of your view of the stunning southern skies. Come prepared with a sky chart so that you know what you are looking at. Namibia is one of the best places in the world to indulge in a little stargazing!