A
Allgemeine Zeitung. Namibia’s oldest daily newspaper is still printed in German. One of the many German curiosities that Namibia surprised us with.
B
Brandberg-West. The non-existent 
village on our map where we planned to stay one night. After realising that there is neither a campground nor any number of houses that would justify the term village, we tried to get to another camp that was signposted on a side road. It was dark by then, and the small rough road was clearly not suitable for a 2-wheel drive. We tried anyway, but had to concede after at least an hour of driving in what felt and looked more like a natural staircase than a road. We ended up setting up our tent right there, in the middle of nowhere, not even knowing exactly where the hell we were (afterwards we found out that we had been about 500 m from the camp). And in the morning we had the fun task of driving the staircase back up.
C
Community campgrounds. A great option if you are camping in Namibia. They are run by the local villagers, and are thus a good and easy way to support the local communities while traveling through their lands. The ones we stayed in were basic (hot showers, no electricity) but situated in beautiful natural settings, and the locals will even sell you firewood and bring it with a wheelbarrow right to your tent. One of our favorites: Aba Huab community campground close to Twyfelfontein.
D
Dune 45. One of the most famous dunes in the Namib desert. Its name refers to its location 45km from the entrance gate to 
the Namib-Naukluft National park. It’s 170m high, and I was fascinated by its relative singular location: a giant pile of sand on an otherwise flat desert plane. It’s a star dune, this means it has a symmetrical pyramid shape. In case you wonder, there is also dune 7, and many others in between.
E
Etosha. Namibias biggest National Park with impressive wildlife where we spotted all big five in 24h. Floodlit waterholes at some of the camps are a must-see.
F
Fur seals at Cape Cross. This noisy and smelly colony is one of the biggest fur seal colonies in the world: up to 80 000 seals live here! The beach is completely covered with seals, and we spent ages watching them from the boardwalk. Especially the young ones are just too cute! We even witnessed one of the seals giving birth to a premature pup. It was really sad to see the mother rub the lifeless little seal with her nose. Eventually she abandoned the stillborn pup, and little later, we saw a seagull feast on it. This is nature.
G
Guest farms. Many farms in present day Namibia don’t solely rely on agriculture and livestock any more, but focus more and more on tourism. They are usually stunning estates in remote locations. One of the farms that we stayed at and fell in love with was Weltevrede Guest Farm. They might have what I would describe as one of the most beautiful campsites ever. They only accommodate 4 campers at a time, and each of the 4 campsites has it’s own little bathroom and shower house, stone built BBQ, sink, floodlight and loads of space. Behind our tent stretched the hilly savannah landscape, above us the blue sky. Five out of five stars for camping idyll.
H
Hitchhikers. With Namibia being one of the least densely populated countries in the world, there is basically no public transport outside the few urban centres. Many of the poorer people (i.e. not the white Namibians) that don’t own a car rely on hitchhiking as a means of transport. We gave several of them a ride, and it was always a fascinating little glimpse into their lives, to hear where they are coming from and where they are headed next. One of them, a little boy whom we picked up walking along the roadside with his little bundle of belongings, was visiting his grandmother in the next village. He said he doesn’t know how many hours the walk takes, because he doesn’t own a watch. We always found it a good experience on our roadtrip to help out some hitchhikers – even though this little guy ate all our cookie supplies.
I
Income inequality. According to the World Bank, Namibia’s income distribution is among the most unequal in the world, and has therefore a highly dualistic society. This is quite obvious when you travel through the country. The white Namibians are usually fairly rich, living on large farms and estates, whereas many of the poor people are black and sometimes seem to live in a parallel society: they live in simple huts, travel with donkey-drawn carts and often beg for money or food from tourists.
J
Jewish heritage. Many town names such as Rehoboth, Rosh Pinah or Berseba reminded us of their counterparts in Israel. Namibia is indeed home to a small Jewish community, which has managed to maintain a synagogue since 1924. Many of the families emigrated from Eastern Europe to Africa in the early 1900 and gave the above-mentioned towns their biblical names. These days, numbers are dwindling as many of the younger generation left the country in search of better economic and social opportunities – but the small community that is left (according to this article it comprises merely 60 Jews) is determined to make the Jewish heritage live on in Namibia.
K
Kilometers. Easy to underestimate distances in this huge country. We drove more than 3000km during our road trip through Namibia, the majority on gravel roads.
L
Language. English is the only official language in Namibia, even though it is only spoken by 1% of the population as a their native language! Until 1990, German and Afrikaans were also official languages, but were deemed as ‚colonial‘ when Namibia became independent from South Africa. Almost half of all Namibians belong to the ethnic group of the Ovambo and speak Oshiwambo as their first language. However, we noticed that German is still very much used and alive in Namibia.
M
Mining industry. The mining business is the single-most important pillar of Namibia’s economy, it provides 25% of the country’s revenue. Namibia is especially famous for diamonds and also for its uranium deposits. In fact, Namibia produces 10% of the world’s processed uranium, and even aims to supply its own electricity from nuclear power by 2018. Although the World Nuclear Organisation states that there is ’no evident progress towards this goal‘.
N
Namib Naukluft National Park. Africa’s largest game park comprises the giant Namib desert with its spectacular red sand dunes and the Naukluft mountain range. The red colour of the dunes comes from oxdising iron in the sand – the older the dune, the more colourful it is. Fantastic desert landscapes, dotted with a few ostriches, springboks and vleis (see V).
O
Oryx. Fascinating animal with its superlong straight horns. And we can report it also tastes great, butcheries sell game meat along with the usual meats, and we loved our oryx skewers on the BBQ!
P
Population. Namibia is scarcely populated: 2,1 million people are spread out over ca. 825 000 square kilometers. This results in the second-lowest population density world-wide. It’s only topped by – guess whom – Mongolia.
Q
Quads. It’s hard to find a word that starts with the letter Q, but quads are indeed super-popular in Namibia. There are certainly enough dunes to go crazy with these vehicles, for example at dune 7, where you can rent them.
R
Radar. Yes, Namibia is that developed. Police are equipped with radar and laser speed traps and make frequent use of them, hiding behind trees or checking the speed at the bottom of hills. It has to be said that Namibia’s roads are for the most part straight and endless, so it’s easy to forget about the speed limit. Anyway, I got caught speeding. But thanks to the extremely friendly, correct and polite policemen, I managed to talk my way out of a hefty fine and got away with a verbal warning. Phew.
S
Skeleton Coast. The name of the Northern part of Namibia’s Atlantic coast, up to Angola. Inland from the coast is inhospitable desert, out on sea is the cold Benguela current that is the cause for the dense fog that shrouds the coastline here most of the year. Back in the days, colonial explorers were doomed if they happened to land here. Countless shipwrecks tell their own story of why the Skeleton Coast deserved its name.
T
Twyfelfontein. This Afrikaans name was given to the place by white settlers in the 1960s, and it means ‚doubtful spring‘. However, this spring must once have been more reliable, because this area was inhabited already for 6000 years. The tribes that lived here are thought to have considered it as a place of worship, and have created more than 2500 rock engravings on the sandstone walls. Really unique to see all the depictions of the big game, combined with some mysterious human features.
U
Unpaved roads. More than once we heard that Namibia is supposed to have great roads. I guess it is true in comparison to most other African countries, but we were surprised by the fact that only 14% of Namibia’s roads (more than 45,000km in total length – about once around the globe) are sealed roads. The rest, a staggering 86%, are unpaved roads of various consistency
– earth, sand, gravel, salt etc. Even though the landscapes are stunning, it can be really tiring to drive on those endless gravel tracks. They are often as wide as a multi-lane highway, but that doesn’t help if the surface is corrugated and makes driving seriously unpleasant. They try to smoothen the roads regularly with graders, but can’t seem to catch up with the demand. Worst, some of the trucks that travel along those otherwise fairly empty gravel roads are going way to fast, and several times they sent small stones flying our way, so we ended up with three chips in our windscreen (luckily the rental company didn’t notice them in the end). I guess the ultra-low population density does not make the development of better roads more economical. So just bring lots of patience and good music for the long drives and take some hitchhikers with you (see H) for additional entertainment.
V
Vleis. An Afrikaans word that describes a small lake or marsh. The Namib desert is full of former vleis, lakes that have dried up, and the lake beds are now gradually swallowed up by the sand dunes. The most impressive one is Dead Vlei: the dead tree trunks tell the story of a time when there was water here. Now, it’s one of the driest places on earth, 
and one tree trunk after the next disappears in the sand.
W
Welwitschia mirabilis. This mysterious plant with its remarkable longevity is only found in the coastal belt of the Namib desert in Namibia and Angola – a place where not many other plants grow at all. And yet, these plants thrive here, and can live well over 1000 years!
X
Xtreme architecture: the ‚Sociable Weaver‚. When we first saw these giant haystacks hanging in trees, we couldn’t figure out right away what they were. But upon closer inspection, it became clear that they were nests, with multiple entrances arranged like honeycombs. With even a bit more patience, we finally spotted the inhabitants of these incredible structures: it’s the so-called sociable weaver. These small birds build together one nest for the entire colony with up to 500 birds, resulting in a structure that is bigger than what any other bird in this world builds. How can they communicate, plan and coordinate such a sophisticated building project? It doesn’t stop to amaze me.
Y
Yellow-billed hornbill. Beautiful hornbill with a bill that looks from afar a bit like a banana. In places with shrubs quite a common sight.
Z
Zebras. In American English, it’s simply called crosswalk. But in British English, they called it zebra crossing – also in German for that matter, we also call the black and white stripes on the road ‚Zebrastreifen‘. If you ever want to see a real zebra crossing, go to Etosha and wait for black and white stripes materialise on the blank road in front of you. It will happen, I promise. And that will have been the most beautiful crosswalk you have ever seen.
