Tok Tokkie Trails, Namibia

Arrive at Tok Tokkie Trails Basecamp in the afternoon, where the friendly team will welcome you and offer you a cold drink. The camp is the place where you can fill your water bottle and pack your backpack with the personal things you want to take with you on day trips. Your luggage is driven by car to the accommodation. The first tour starts with a visit to the Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust (NaDEET), a non-profit organization aimed at promoting environmentally conscious thinking in the country. Your trail will include a trip in a hilly area with special formations in the landscape, over sand dunes and to your first camp. The sand dunes are not quite as massive and large here as at the previous camp and the landscape is a lot flatter. Get out of here, enjoy a cold drink and feel how the sounds and smells of the desert rock you to rest. For most people, an overnight stay here is a great and close spiritual experience. Total walking time approx. 2 hours.

Before the sun rises we get a cup of coffee and a light breakfast so we can leave before it gets too hot. The day will offer a beautiful walk through the changing landscapes of the desert, and with the help of the guide we will learn to see the signs of activities that the animals that live at night here have left behind. There is more life in this immediately rather dead environment than one thinks. Get acquainted with concepts such as “golden clouds” and “dancing dust”, see where the gecko has been and where the sand larch has looked past. We cross an impressive ridge and a dry river delta. The guide shows and explains along the way – how the area’s plants survive, where insects, frogs and lizards adapt to the harsh conditions and how to survive without water for a long time. There are surprisingly many birds here, and if we are lucky, we see some of the desert’s larger inhabitants such as the special ear fox, the antelope oryx, springbuck or an ostrich. It is impressive that such large animals can live here. We eat lunch in the shade, where our chef prepares a good meal. Time for siesta and relaxation. In the late afternoon, when the heat is not so massive anymore, we move on to the next accommodation. The area is like a sea of ​​endless sand dunes and sand formations, and in the background you see impressive mountains. Total walking time approx. 6-7 hours.

Once again, you wake up to the very special light that reigns here shortly before sunrise. There is coffee and a light breakfast before setting out on the final hike. The soft and rolling sand dunes have small oases of camel horn trees where you can find shade. Today’s trip is not strenuous and we are already before lunch at the farm run by the Namib Educational Trust. Total walking time approx. 3 hours