Jungle or desert – which are you? It’s the type of question Wanderlust loves. If you’d asked me 15 years ago, I’d have said jungle, without a moment’s hesitation. Why would I pass up a lush, humid, bird-rich tangle of green for the austerity of gravel plains, rocks and dunes?
But that was before my first visit to Namibia. It was a trip that blew my prejudices to smithereens. Namibia’s deserts offer vast, time-sculpted panoramas, packed with drama, beauty and subtle colour, from the spiky kokerboom groves of the Quiver Tree Forest in the far south to the NamibRand’s ginger-and-bone grasslands, to Sossusvlei’s curvaceous dunes and Damaraland’s boulder-like rock formations, scattered with prehistoric art.
To my relief, the arid heat was entirely manageable, and there were relatively water-rich areas, too,…
