Guests’ Notes from Namibia: Three Weeks, One Car, and Zero Regrets

Back: guest bloggers Benedikte & Jens (sister-in-law and brother) 
Front seat Blogger and wife, NamibRand, Namibia 2026

By Benedikte and Jens (sister-in-law and brother, first-timers, now fully converted)

Some invitations change your year. Ours came July 2025, when Blogger and Wife asked Jens and me a question that sounded simple but clearly wasn't: would we like to join them for the first three weeks of what would be their 7th trip to Namibia?

Seventh. As in: these two have now been more times to Namibia than I've been to the national museum!

We did actually consider the fabulous offer for a couple of days, while Blogger and Wife were at the remote island of Christiansø, but we decided we simply had to see for ourselves what was so special about Namibia.

Two brothers at braai (grill) 
Klein Aus Vista, Sperrgebeit
Namibia 2026

"Landscape or animals?"

NamibRand landscape
Wife, brother and blogger
Namibia 2026

The real interview question came next, and Blogger asked it with the seriousness of a man who has clearly asked it before and knows it matters: landscape, or animals?

I didn't hesitate. Landscape. I'd read Laurens van der Post's The Lost World of the Kalahari as a young woman and never quite gotten it out of my system, and then there's the small matter of sand dunes tumbling straight into the Atlantic Ocean, which is not a sentence that should be geographically possible, and yet apparently is, in Namibia.

Which is exactly where he took us. In order, roughly: the red dune chalets of Bagatelle in the Kalahari, Fish River Canyon, the edge of the Sperrgebiet diamond area and a day in Lüderitz, the legendary D707, NamibRand, Sandwich Harbour (where the dunes genuinely do meet the sea), a scenic flight over the whole lot, and finally the granite giants and ancient San rock art of the Erongo Mountains. He even smuggled in two days of wildlife at Okonjima at the very end, specifically, he told us, so his landscape-obsessed guests wouldn't go home without seeing a Namibian predator up close. That's either very generous or a small concession that "landscape or animals" was always a bit of a trick question. Possibly both.

Landscape, NamibRand, Namib Desert
Namibia 2026

A small correction for the record, since "landscape" seems to confuse people: choosing landscape over animals does not mean you see no animals. It mostly just means you skip Etosha and the other big game parks. Over three weeks we still ran into giraffes, rhinos, a leopard, a brown hyena, a string of bemused jackals, more antelope species than I can now reliably name, and a colony of sea lions and seals on the coast. What we didn't see were lions or elephants, and honestly, nobody complained. And then there are the nights: far from any town, the stars and the Milky Way are almost aggressively visible, in a way that simply no longer exists in light-polluted Europe. If landscape gets you that, animals can wait.

What we didn't fully appreciate until we were there was the discipline behind it. Blogger didn't just choose beautiful places, he chose how long we stayed in each one: two, sometimes three unhurried days per stop, no more, no less. We watched other travellers thundering past us on the same roads, clearly racing the clock to tick off every named dune, canyon and rock formation in the guidebook, while we got to just... sit. Watch the light change. Have a second coffee or a glass of wine. We probably shouldn't be surprised the pacing was this good, but we're grateful for it all the same.

Six visits in, and he still asks the question

Stars, peace and rest, NamibRand Family Hideour
Namibia 2026

During their last trip to Namibia, Blogger and Wife were joined by their two best friends and they did two 4x4s, which, as anyone who has actually driven Namibia's back-country tracks will tell you, is not a luxury but a strategy: two cars mean you can reach places one alone shouldn't attempt solo. This time it was one car, four people, and a driver who has clearly memorized every gravel pass and riverbed crossing in the country. We may have gone slightly less far off the map than the two 4x4 version of this trip. We are entirely fine with that. We got the dunes, the canyon, the silence, the stars and the Milky Way, and, as it turned out, a leopard three metres away, staring straight back at us.

What three weeks with your favourite people in their favourite country actually feels like

Dinner, NamibRand Family Hideout
All four of us
Namibia 2026

Here is the part I didn't expect going in: the trip itself was extraordinary, but the company made it. Spending three straight weeks in a car, at dinner tables, and on sundowner hills with your brother / brother-in-law and his wife could, in theory, go either way. It went entirely the right way. Blogger and Wife are simply easy to be around, good-humoured on the long driving days, endlessly patient with two relative novices, and generous with places they've clearly loved for years and didn't have to share with anyone.

Discussing the route
Sister-in-law, brother and blogger
NamibRand, Namibia 2026

There's also the small matter of who did the actual work. Blogger and Wife chose every stop, planned every logistic, and executed the whole thing; booking a chalet on a dune a year in advance, remembering which tyre pressure suits which sand, working out where the drinks fridge would be restocked next. We, meanwhile, mostly opened the car door, admired the view, and occasionally passed someone a snack. "We were just enjoying the ride" is doing a lot of quiet, comfortable work in that sentence, and we know it. Thank you for carrying all of it so we didn't have to.

We came home a week ago still slightly dusty and completely unsurprised that this is trip number seven for them. We spent three weeks wondering whether we'd understand the pull this country has on them.

We do. Entirely.

Namibia 2026

For anyone reading this who's considering their own first Namibia trip

• Decide early whether you're a "landscape" or "animals" person — Blogger will ask, and it genuinely shapes the itinerary.
• Book absurdly far ahead if there's a specific remote camp or dune chalet you want; the good ones vanish the moment reservations open, a year out.
• One 4x4 gets you a wonderful trip. Two gets you a wilder one. Both are equally fine. It’s just a question of preference.
• If someone who's been seven times invites you along, say yes, before you've even looked at the map.

Thank you, Blogger and Wife, for sharing your favourite country and your favourite places in it. We're already wondering what trip number eight looks like, - and whether we get invited.