Welwitschia Drive

What makes it special

The plant at the far end is the reason for the drive. A welwitschia grows only two leaves from a woody crown and keeps growing them all its life, while the wind splits and tears them into what looks like a heap of dead leaves. It grows nowhere but the Namib, and the fenced one at the end of the route is estimated at over 1,500 years old.

Look at the ground around it too. The leaves catch fog, and the water drips straight onto shallow roots, which is why that plant is fenced and stone rings keep you off the others. Seeds sprout only after heavy rain, so new plants appear once every few years or even decades.

The lichen near the first beacons takes decades to grow, and old wagon tracks still show in it, so stay on the road and off the crust. At the first beacon only a few stones with orange lichen remain of an orange field that has since disappeared, and a sign there asks you to tread carefully.

At the Moon Landscape the flat gravel plain drops suddenly into a deep canyon cut by the Swakop River. Further on, a black ridge crosses a granite hill: a dolerite dyke, where molten rock forced up through cracks has worn away more slowly than the granite around it. Further along again, some of a First World War camp of South African soldiers still shows on the ground.

Visiting

Thirteen numbered beacons mark the route, and the paper map that explains each one comes with the permit. Buy it at the environment ministry office in central Swakopmund: go inside, ask for the Welwitschia Drive permit, and staff send you to the right desk. If you plan to stay two nights, say so when you buy it.

On the road, follow the map stop by stop. The early beacons cover the lichen plains and the viewpoints over the Moon Landscape. Stops 9 and 10 are the dolerite ridge and the Swakop riverbed.

Stop 12 is the big welwitschia behind its fence. Another beacon marks iron workings dug by hand in the 1950s. For a cold drink or a swim after the dust, turn in at Goanikontes Oasis.

Tips

Collect the permit the afternoon before or on the morning you go. Carry at least two litres of water per person plus spare for emergencies, and pack food: Goanikontes Oasis is the only place on the route that sells anything.

Fill the tank and check the spare tyre in Swakopmund before you leave. Download offline maps in town too, since the signal fades soon after the last houses. Bring a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen for the strong desert sun.