Last month two exciting new camps debut in the southern African nation, the very first properties in Namibia for conservation-focused tourism company Natural Selection. The first is aesthetically unusual Shipwreck Lodge located on the Skeleton Coast and the second is Hoanib Valley Camp which is located in Kaokoland. To travel between the camps, it’s possible to do a full-day game drive or a short flight.
There’s nowhere in Namibia quite like Shipwreck Lodge, which is uniquely designed around the mysterious shipwrecks that line Namibia’s Skeleton Coast. In fact, there’s nowhere in Africa quite like the Skeleton Coast. It’s a rugged, raw and remote part of the African wilderness, where soaring dunes and wind-swept plains go as far as the eye can see, pommelled by the icy Atlantic seas.
But there’s much more to the area than simple isolation. Stay at Shipwreck Lodge and game drive amongst desert-dwelling elephant and track elusive desert lion; discover the enchanting desert flora (succulents and lichens); sit atop the dunes as the sun sinks below the horizon; spend the day beach-combing for whale bones and debris from centuries of shipwrecks, or marvel at the geologically-remarkable Clay Castles. Really, there’s nowhere like it on earth.
Hoanib Valley Camp is also set in a spectacularly beautiful landscape. Deep in north-western Namibia, the area is a melee of towering mountains, sand dunes, and huge expanses of desert, scattered with unique wildlife and nomadic Himba settlements. It’s also one of Namibia’s most remote and wild environments, and one that not many will get the chance to discover in a lifetime.
A joint venture between the local communities and the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, the world’s only Africa-wide giraffe conservation organisation, the camp is an elegant, intimate affair that immerses you into the wilds of the desert.
The six rooms blend seamlessly with the environment, offering a simple aesthetic that matches the rugged landscape down to a tee. Days are spent tracking endangered rhino, desert-adapted elephant, and of course desert-adapted giraffe, before retiring to your private veranda to marvel at the magnitude of your surroundings (G&T in hand).