Namibia is a technicolor dreamscape, a land of swirling apricot dunes and shimmering white flats, mirages and dust devils, black-faced impala and crimson-breasted shrike. Its major game park, which centers on the Great Etosha Pan, offers an exceptional range and abundance of wildlife and a landscape that could not provide a more striking backdrop for it. The coastal region is one of the world's most captivating desert regions, and in the south lies a canyon second in magnificence only to the Grand Canyon itself.

Namibia has four primary geographic regions, all of which are of great interest to the adventure traveler. In the north lies the Etosha Pan, an enormous alluvial basin that has long since lost the lake that it once held. Although water supplies are now limited for most of the year to the perimeter of the pan, the area remains sufficiently fertile to support great herds of antelope species (including gemsbok, impala, and springbok), zebra, and--most famously--elephants. Many other species of wildlife abound as well, and the Etosha Pan is now the center of one of the finest game parks on the African continent.

Along the Namibian coast lies the Namib Desert, a spectacularly barren, brilliant red sand landscape that is divided into the Skeleton Coast (in the north) and the Diamond Coast (in the south). There are a number of features of this coastal desert that make it quite unlike any spot on earth. First, and most famously, it is the richest source of diamonds on the planet, and Namibia is as a result the world's largest diamond producer. Second, the dry and hot Namibian shoreline is situated right at the point where the icy waters of the Atlantic hit the continent--Antarctic water meets African desert, and the result is often unbelievable fog.

In the northeast, Namibian territory extends between Angola and Botswana along the slender corridor of the Caprivi Strip . Unlike most of the rest of Namibia , the Caprivi Strip is a wooded and fertile region, and it is crossed by a number of rivers. Two of these, the Zambezi and the Okavango , rank among the great rivers of Africa . The strip is also the site of several game parks, which while not offering such an abundance of wildlife certainly provide spectacular scenery and relative solitude.