There are few places where you’ll find so many different photogenic landscapes in such a small area as in the South of Namibia. The typical five that people visit are the Fish River Canyon, Quiver Tree Forest/Giants Playground, Kolmanskop, The Namib Rand and Sossusvlei. The Sossusvlei area is a touch above the rest and deserved an article of its own, so I need a substitute on the big 5 list. The Sandhof lily pan is a location that’s much less known, but probably the most astounding of them all and will do as nr5 on the list!
The information in this article is my personal opinion based on about 6 weeks of travelling in Namibia over the past two years. You can view all my images of Namibia in the respective galleries.
So assuming you enter Namibia at Vioolsdrift as I always do, you’ll start at FRC!
Fish River Canyon (FRC)
Unofficially the 2nd largest canyon on the planet, this tear in the earth is a must visit on the list. My issue with it is that everyone has the exact same photo of it – the view from the Hobas viewing points. So for the sake of doing something different and another reason I’ll justify later on I’m going to advise something different.
Sunrise captured from the pool deck with a cup of coffee in hand
I was at a lodge on the Northern rim of the canyon with a client last year and to say that it impressed me would be lying, because in true cliché movie words…”it took my breath away”. It’s three hours from the nearest fuel station on a bad dirt road and it’s not exactly priced so that you can stay for 3 nights. Accommodation and meals will easily cost you R1500-R2000pp/night, but it is 150% worth it. It’s perched right on the canyon cliff tops and the photographic opportunities are ridiculous. The rooms are amazing, it’s very luxurious and the staff is super friendly. It may not be in everyone’s price range, but I’ve stayed at similarly priced places in Namibia and had much worse. Consider half of the price a fee for the photos you’ll get because it is worth it. If you have a wife/girlfriend then you’ll get amazing photos and you’ll score major brownie points for taking her there. If there is any place on this list that you should pay for a nice experience, this is the place to do so!
Afternoon storms captured 20 meters behind my cliff top room
Quiver Tree Forest (QTF)
Everyone has a specific element of a landscape that they prefer over others. It may be a mountain, a river, a beach, a forest, a desert….for me it’s a lone tree. That being the case, I know that the location of a tree is even more important than the tree itself. An ugly tree in the ultimate location is better than a beautiful tree in a bad location. The trees at QTF are amazing, but the location sucks more than a Cokin filter. It’s in a small fenced camp, there’s a road running by it and a lot of farm structures on the horizon about 1km away. This place was very disappointing for me. The only way you can eliminate all the crap is shooting wide and at a low angle. I did get some good shots there, but I won’t personally recommend it.
Wide and low is the only way to go
This brings me to the second reason for going to the FRC lodge…it’s surrounded by quiver trees…on a cliff…overlooking the Fish River Canyon. It doesn’t really get better. Work out how much you would have spent on visiting QTF and rather spend that money to get to the FRC lodge!
Giant’s playground is the same story. Some interesting rock stacks, but in a small fenced camp with a road running by it. It would have been nice for night skies, but it’s right outside Keetmanshoop which is a large town.
See the farm structures in the background on the LHS?
Kolmanskop
This isn’t truly a landscape, but the sand blown ghost town of Kolmanskop makes for great photos and it’s certainly something you won’t find elsewhere on the planet. It’s just outside the town of Luderitz and a very popular tourist attraction. Don’t expect to get nice photos in the busy months (April-August), rather go early or late summer. I was there at the very beginning of April and only saw about 20 people there. While you can get a permit to enter early and exit late it didn’t really seem worth it. We got there before sunrise and that nice warm glow inside the houses only started showing about an hour after sunrise. There really aren’t any tips or tricks to this place, just go, explore the houses and have fun! All I can say is that the nice houses are the ones on the right, if you’re standing behind the community hall looking up the hill. There’s one with very nice upper rooms, but the staircase isn’t in great condition.
a Broken staircase takes you to this colorful and pristine 2nd story of one of the houses
Namib Rand
The other four places on the list are single locations, but the Namib Rand is a vast area with about 10-15 lodges to choose from. I can’t speak for all of them, but I’ve been to 4 – Kanaan, Excelsior/Drifters, Dina and Nubib Mountain Lodge. There are obviously many factors that determine your experience at one of these places, but the most important ones for me are the photo opportunities, the host and the value for money.
The plains of Dina
- Kanaan is unparalleled in photographic opportunity, but not worth the money in my opinion. The accommodation is overpriced and then seeing the farm/shooting costs a lot extra. If you can pay R2500pp a day for a bed and two shoots, then by all means go!
- I haven’t stayed at Dina, but I’ve met the owners/managers and they’re very friendly. It is also very fairly priced, but there is some fuss over commercial photo use of photos of the farm. If you’re just a hobbyist then I doubt you’ll be in trouble.
- I’ve stayed at Nubib mountain lodge and I enjoyed it a lot. The farm doesn’t have the iconic dunes in the grass, but the trees there are unbelievable and it’s right at the foot of a 2000m mountain range. It’s well priced and the owner is friendly and helpful.
- Excelsior, which is owned by the Drifters group is definitely my favourite. It may not have the best trees or best dunes, but it has a better variety than any of the other places. It has dunes, grass, acacia trees, mountains, quiver trees…everything! It’s well priced, the facilities are excellent and the lodge manager is an awesome guy.
- I’ve shot on Wereldsend, but it’s not open to photographers.
- Wolwedans is the crème de la crème and is priced as such. Expect to pay around R5000pp/day there, but if you got the money then enjoy it!
Kameelhof mountain on Excelsior
Excelsior, Dina, Wereldsend and Wolwedans all border each other, while Nubib is slightly to the North and Kanaan is about 100km to the South. No place I’ve ever seen matches the Rand for simplicity of elements. It’s just something different when the grass is green, so go Feb-March to witness a semi desert looking like highland prairies.
Sunrise over excelsior with the highest peak in the rand, Satans Peak in the distance ( I may be wrong here)
Sandhof Lily Pan
Click above title for website.
When you think of Namibia, your mind immediately jumps to deserts, barren plains and dry canyons. There are very lush parts in the North Eastern parts, but Namibia is known primarily for the Namib Desert. So when you tell someone that just 100km East of Sossusvlei there is a seasonal marsh filled with lilies as far as the eye can see, they’ll probably laugh at you.
Monster storm cell rolling in over the pan
Just 40km to the North of the Maltahohe, lies a pan on a farm called Sandhof. When this pan fills to about 30cm depth with the first big summer rains, the crinum palidosum lily germinates. The 700 hectare pan fills with what is probably in the millions of these massive pink and white flowers. Just as miraculously, hordes of elephant beetles appear out of nowhere to feast on the delicacy. In less than two weeks the flowers germinate, bloom and die and the beetles seem to vanish into thin air.
Witnessing this spectacle isn’t easy though. It never blooms at the same yearly time and it doesn’t even necessarily bloom every year. So if you a work a full time job then you’re probably out of luck, but if you dictate your own schedule and you keep an eye on the rains in the area then you might just be lucky enough to see these flowers. You can contact the farm owners to find out if the lilies are in bloom or not.
Sunset over the Sandhof Lilies
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