Hourless Life

There are 3 safe hours to drive the narrow stretch of beach at Sandwich Harbor. On one side: towering sand dunes your vehicle can't scale. On the other: the Atlantic Ocean.

Oh yeah, and we saw some astonishing things out our window.

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Overland in Namibia: Sandwich Harbor to Etosha (Video) As we overland Namibia from bottom to top, we drive the infamous Sandwich Harbor where the towering dunes meet the Atlantic Ocean.

📍Omborokko Safaris bush camp, Namibia

Thankful for friends and friends of friends. Jim at connected us with Hamma and Eunice at Omborokko Safaris. It’s a decent drive off the main road to access their ranch, and then a true bush drive to get to the off-grid campground. Water comes from a bore hole and electricity is supplied by solar. Shower and tap water is provided by the wood-fueled donkey boiler. We had everything we needed.

We were surrounded by creature signs and sounds, starting with the birds that were so excited about the new day that they started their song in pitch dark early morning. I loved taking my coffee into the dry, sandy riverbed to spoor. Africa is still so new to my mind that I’m still auto-attributing tracks to raccoon and possum. Learning this new continent and loving how much there is to learn.

We found true peace here.

📍Sandwich Harbour, Namibia

Social media and online video so shape tourism expectations, manipulating the way we sum up a country in our minds. By timing a shutter click just right, viewers imagine they’ll have the place all to themselves.

Tourists from different countries can even have differing expectations, based on the content they consume (read: the content the algorithm shows them).

For me, based on the past adventures of my traveling heroes, Namibia was Sandwich Harbour. This narrow stretch of beach is where the waves touch the towering dunes at high-tide, necessitating careful timing to avert disaster. Driving on the edge. The window of safety is only three hours long to get out and back.

I had given up the dream for myself. We have the utmost mechanical sympathy for our beloved Jeep home, now five years old with quite an old soul based on where he’s been. Between the salt water and pounding dune driving, Sandwich Harbour became the next in a long list of places we purposely decided not to go in order to make it around the world.

When Paul Lombard at Travel Uncharted Tours offered us a guided tour, I jumped at the chance. Our guide Dino was fantastic, putting many bakkies to shame with his effortless dune driving in a 4x4 van.

The beach drive was a dream. The most magic-infused, surreal moment I’ve had in Africa so far. The “I can’t believe I’m really here” point in time. After everything we’ve done and everywhere we’ve been, I don’t get this feeling often. (It’s psychology, repeated exposure.)

After nearly kissing the tide on the drive out, a much shorter distance than I expected, we ploughed into the dunes to reach the famous viewpoint. I could’ve sat there forever and ever, just taking it all in.

Can’t wait to share Sandwich Harbour and much more of Namibia with you in our upcoming video.

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“A philosopher will tell you that the mere fact that anything exists at all is actually kind of stunning. We’re just so used to it....Everything is amazing if you just haven’t forgotten it. We all live in an enchanted reality. But we’ve grown so accustomed to it that we’ve turned the enchantment off.”
—Dave Evans

Many long-term overlanders keep a house or home base they can go back to. But we don’t have anything but this Jeep. It keeps life simple and we like it this way. But we understand the appeal of traveling, then resting and processing.

So we are trying to implement that model in our own way. We thought we’d spend 24 nights in the same campground in Swakopmund, Namibia. We found out 24 nights was too long by about 10 nights (we think 14 nights is our sweet spot when we need a break). You can only figure these things out by experimenting.

Very excited to get back on the road to explore the rest of splendid Namibia. 🇳🇦

Didn't expect to see this in Namibia. 🌧️

Watch now...

Hourless Life 1 like, 2 comments. "UNEXPECTED: Driving Through Torrential Rain in the Namibia Desert (Sossusvlei, Deadvlei, Spitzkoppe)"

Spitzkoppe | 📍Namibia

Part Alabama Hills, part all-your-favorite-places-in-Utah, Spitzkoppe is known as the “Matterhorn of Namibia.” 🧗🏻‍♀️

It is run by the local people of the region. Camping is a bit pricier because it includes entry to the full park, with its bridge arch, rock pools, and rock art.

It is a peaceful place, especially if you choose a campsite out of the way. We tried a couple of sites. One was off on its own, extremely private and quiet. The second wasn’t too close to neighboring sites, but it got more foot traffic and was next to boulders people climbed at sunrise and sunset. But that second one was special. The rock hyrax came down from the rocks on Easter morning, and we watched them climb scrubby trees to eat while we enjoyed our own breakfast. Caspian used a treasure map and did an egg hunt among the boulders and other landmarks he’d been exploring.

We really enjoyed our visit. Happy to answer any questions about it, and you can see much more in our next YouTube video.

Namib-Naukluft National Park | Deadvlei | Dune 45 |📍Namibia

The Namib Desert is stunning. It’s unpredictable. We had several “and that’s why you don’t camp in dry washes” conversations—when the heavens opened and the world immediately turned into a river.

We were able to drive Dauntless the last deep, sandy stretch to Deadvlei, which is 4x4 only. Just a few days after we were there, that whole stretch was underwater due to a rare rain event.

But it didn’t rain during our visit. We drove the long valley with towering dunes on either side, stopping for a gorgeous oryx. I didn’t think much of oryx before Namibia, having just seen them in zoos. But it turns out animals in their natural habitat have a bit of magic in them, and I feel like oryx might use their flowing black tails to fly away.

I fell off the Jeep a few days before, flat onto my back. It’s an embarrassing story, but I hurt myself quite a bit (as far as bruises and soreness goes). (It could’ve been a lot worse.) Anyway, I wasn’t going to hike any sand dunes. We stopped just for photos of Dauntless at photogenic Dune 45.

There, Caspian got it into his head that he would hike the dune. He didn’t talk to us about it. He just…started. He was gone about half an hour up the 170-meter thing, and it was special for all of us. I guess our nine year old does solo hikes now.

I did hike to the Deadvlei clay pan. By this point, the clouds had inconveniently departed and it was H O T. It was not a comfortable hike to see dead trees sticking up out of the ground. I wish I’d found some romance in that one. Maybe if I had seen it at sunrise like the travel articles say. Anyway, I had the wherewithal to dig hydration powder out when we got back to the Jeep, and we all felt happy to have persevered together.

After our visit, I told Eric we were traveling through Namibia too fast. With Deadvlei behind us, as well as Fish River Canyon and Kolmanskop, Etosha National Park was the only major stop left. That’s how it felt, anyway.

I had high hopes for Namibia, and it is not disappointing me at all. But I’m still processing.

We are driving through NAMIBIA! 🌍

In our latest video, we share our first border crossing in Africa. We go off-road to view the largest canyon on the continent, then make our way to a ghost town slowly being buried by the sand.

Join us for this adventure.

Overlanding Namibia: Fish River Canyon | Kolmanskop Ghost Town From Fish River Canyon, the largest canyon in Africa, to the ghost town of Kolmanskop being buried by sand. Overlanding Namibia is amazing.

K O L M A N S K O P ghost town | 📍Namibia

When a railway worker noticed stones sparkling on the ground, his German overseer knew what they were: diamonds. This began a mad prospecting rush in the early 1900s and the establishment of a decadent town among the dunes of the Namib Desert.

We were told one could run their hand along the bottom of the valley floor and come up with diamonds, which led to mind-bending wealth. Home supplies, appliances, and fashion were shipped in from Europe. Opera singers and circus performers took to the stage. Ice was made in an innovative fashion and delivered daily using a rail car that ran through town. The ladies hopped on to get around. The bachelors of the town had their own lounge, with a rope above the table they could pull for service.

Within view of all this, the workers lived in simple barracks. They were x-rayed to ensure they were not hiding diamonds…anywhere.

And then it was done. After a couple of decades, the diamonds had been found and the rush had moved elsewhere. The sand began to take over. Already, some of Kolmanskop’s structures are too unsound to enter. How long will it be before this town, once a scene of decadence and wealth, is completely buried?

See our visit this Sunday on YouTube. Available early for Patreon supporters at patreon.com/hourlesslife.