Namibia’s wild, frontier character permeates its vast, wide-open spaces, with fire-coloured dunes merging with an endless sky.

These mountains of sand are most magnificent at the remote desert moonscape called Sossusvlei, home to the world’s tallest standing dunes.

Namibia is named after the 80-million-year-old Namib Desert, one of the driest places on earth. The ancient dunes span the entire Atlantic coast, covering the 800 mile-long, Skeleton Coast. A famed resident of the Namib is the tangled Welwitschia Mirabilis, a plant with a lifespan of over 1000 years.

The prohibited southern Sperrgebiet or “forbidden region” of diamond concessions amplifies the mysterious aura of this haunting coast – here lies ethereal Lüderitz, a bizarre Bavarian village on one of the most desolate coasts on earth, and the nearby ghost town, Kolmanskop.

Namibia’s constitution actively supports the sustainable use of natural resources and forward-looking ecosystem management