Mission: Find Namibia’s Orange Dunes

Thomas Blomme, a 27-year-old Belgian high school teacher, fulfilled his dream this year, when his 17 year wish to see Namibias ‘orange’ dunes, came true. Here he shares his story and the amazing images he captured during this journey of a lifetime to Namibia.

Thomas, why did you travel to Namibia? What made you choose this as a holiday destination?

When I was about 10 years old I saw a documentary on Belgian television about orange dunes. I never forgot that image, but I couldn’t remember which country it was.

So I’ve searched the internet and found out that the beautiful dunes are in Namibia. After reading more about Namibia we discovered the diversity of the country. We wanted to travel to Africa and to plan the trip on our own, without any travel organization. Namibia was made for it!

Tell us about your trip? Did you plan in advance where to go, did you have a planned itinerary? Or did you just go as you went? Did you travel with friends?

At first it was only me and my girlfriend, Audrey, who were planning the trip. After telling friends about our plans,  two of them – Tim and Martijn decided to come with us.

The first thing we did, was buying our flight ticket and renting a jeep with Value Car (with rooftents).

We had read that the NWR run camping sites were quickly snatched up, so we booked these in advance.

We arranged the other campsites on arrival and hoped there was still a spot for us 🙂 We’ve made an itinerary after reading several traveler-blogs.

We did the “classic-tour”.

Windhoek – Quivertree Forest – Fish River Canyon – Luderitz – Sossusvlei – Walvisbaai – Twyfelfontein – Spitzkoppe – Grootberg – Etosha – Windhoek.

What was the highlight of your trip?

It’s hard to pick one highlight, because you can’t compare the things we’ve seen.

But if we have to pick our highlights, it would be Sossusvlei, because of the endless high dunes, the sunset and the drought in Deadvlei and Etosha, because of the numerous and various animal species. You can’t explain the feeling you get when you see a group of 40 elephants, a group of 7 lions, etc

What do you tell people in your country about Namibia, now that you have been here? What makes this a special holiday trip?

1. First of all it’s a beautiful country.
2. I liked the dry air: you don’t get any dew on your tent in the morning/evening.
3. Namibia has great camping facilities. We also liked the calmness and the silence.
4. It’s also very safe to travel alone and all of the people are soooooo friendly.
5. People are worried you could have car troubles, when you just stop to eat a sandwich and everything is OK, people try their very best to find you a place to sleep,…

Would you come again?

We would definitely come again to visit the Himba’s and the Caprivi-region. We would combine this with (a second visit to) Etosha and the Africat-foundation.

What was your favorite Namibian drink?

As I’m a Belgian and Belgium is a beer-country, I loved the Windhoek Lager. My girlfriend preferred Savanna-dry.

Your favorite Namibian accommodation?

I would like to pick two completely different accommodations.

First is the minimalistic campsite of Spitzkoppe, where you don’t have much luxury (no electricity, no water,…) but in return you get a breathtaking view and endless stars. You don’t get the feeling you’re on a campsite because of the space between the campsites.

The second campsite is the Lapa Lange Game Lodge in Mariental. It was our first night in Namibia and they made us feel welcome. We also liked it because of the great facilities, the beautiful environment, the waterhole with two rhino’s and the sundowner game drive.

Your favorite Namibian animal?

I love the springbok. The animal seems always happy, especially when it jumps in that funny way (you know: the back as high as possible, the legs stiff, head down). It makes me smile!