Wings over Namibia

There’s something relentlessly compelling to me about harsh environments. I find the way that they focus my mind to only the most immediate concerns very calming. It’s like having the volume turned down on your stream of consciousness. In that way, Namibia is something of a revelation. The entire country is functionally a pretty harsh desert and large parts of it are actively hostile: very hot, very dry, very far from anything. Aside from a few towns and some rather excellent lodges that in some ways insulate you from this reality, just the thinnest margin of error separates you from having quite a bad day. So it’s handy to have someone to guide you through it all who knows what they’re doing.

I submit to you that some of the best in the business where this is concerned are the Schoemann brothers. Farmers, pilots and guides, who for years have been running what I consider one of those rare, proper adventures in Africa – Skeleton Coast Safaris. Their flying safaris covering the length of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast are extraordinary experiences that in a very real sense, help to unlock this enigma of a country.

While the various versions of the trips they run may differ slightly (you can add extensions on to the beginning of the adventure, or an additional night at one of their remote camps) fundamentally the core of all the trips is the same – a leapfrogging flying trip at low altitude along the length of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast.

When you’re not flying, you’ll stay in one of their 3 lightweight camps that stretch in a chain the length of the Skeleton Coast. They have great names: Kuidas, Leylandsdirft & Kunene. I think my favorite is Leylandsdrift. It sits on a ridge like some desert eyrie overlooking a bend in the Huarisib River, with distant mountains in the background that turn the most extraordinary shade of red as the sun sets.

The camps are not luxurious, but they’re not supposed to be – and that’s the point.  They serve the purpose they’re designed for, to be bases for you to explore the fantastic environments they’re in. These remote camps serve as launching pads for deeper exploration into the surrounding areas, and each morning you’ll usually head out for a few hours by vehicle (or at the Kunene Camp by boat) to visit what can almost feel like the surface of some distant planet.

After several days with just you, your travel companions and your guide moving through this truly vast wilderness, you can feel as though you’ve had the settings on your senses dialed up. You feel like you hear more, and see more, are much less distracted and present. Its a pretty wonderful feeling – so, re-entry into real life after a trip like this is definitely a bit jarring. You land back in Windhoek and all at once there’s too much of everything. Too much noise, too many people, too many screens, all hitting you all at once before you have a chance to adjust. It makes you want to jump back in your little Cessna and strike out for the Skeleton Coast right away.