Namibia

Area : 8325’418 Km2

Population: 2’120’000~

Capital: Windhoek

Language : English

Nature of the Country: Republic

Currency: Namibian dollar (NAD)

Dunes and Diamonds

Elephants and lions haunt the largest national park in Namibia, but there is more unusual yet: the last country to have acceded to independence displays its difference, both with its beautiful dunes or its diamond fields, that with its Skeleton Coast – On behalf disaster – or its cities to the architecture of the past. If the local radio stations broadcast in over a dozen idioms, a little english or even of German you will suffice in practice.

Former Southwest Africa, Namibia is independent only since 1990. It was formerly governed since the South Africa, after having established a German colony a thirty year, at the turn of the century. The era of the Kaiser ‘ brand yet the urban landscape – and the culinary traditions, with sauerkraut, sausages and beer. Moreover, Karneval and Oktoberfest are the main festivals in Windhoek, the picturesque capital of the high plateaux.

This state to the scattered population represents an area of three-quarters of South Africa (825’118 km2 and 1.9 million inhabitants in 2003), or one and a half times the France. It is bordered to the west by the South Atlantic, to the north by the Angola, to the east by the Botswana, on the south by South Africa.

With respect to the edge of Caprivi, born of a diplomatic artifice, it seems ‘spearing’ the Zambia.

Extended and well designed, the road network allows you to travel easily the country, the airplane proved sometimes more convenient for the large distances.

The beautiful ethnic diversity of the nation is reflected by the colors of the flag of Namibia – blue, green, red and gold. The Tribes grouped under the name of Ovambos form the half of the total population. Then come, in order, Kabangos, Hereros and Damaras, while it is estimated the number of white to 90 000. The hero of the film The Gods are fallen on the head, the Bushmen (or San), who live by hunting and gathering, there are more than in the tens of thousands. The Namibians are Christians to 90%, the Lutherans Arriving in head.

The coast, Morne and dangerous, stretches on 1’400 km, but provides only a single true deep-water port: Walvis Bay, long an enclave of South Africa of strategic interest. The interior Finally, Kingdom of the antelopes, zebras, giraffes or hippos, presents sights as only the heart of Africa can offer.

The Namib-Naukluft Park

Near WD 50’000 km2 (either larger than Switzerland and near Env. 1 diziaime of France), the national park the largest in the country and one of the natural reserves the most extensive in the world. The variety of its landscapes is prodigious: montages, prairies, desert to the gigantic dunes. The various fauna:: zebras , springbok, ostriches and also eagles, falcons, etc. It is necessary to say that the flora is also more provided that one would: herbs, fat plants as well as a plant primitive, Welwitschia mirabilis, which is simply the moisture filed by the fog or dew Ra! It is in the central sector of Sossusvlei, which passes to possess the sand dunes the highest in the world (approx. 300m).

Walvis Bay

Unique port site between the cap and the Angola. A lot of fish but especially thousands of flamingos and bands of other species, migratory or not. Of sea birds colonize the vast ‘islands’ created in wide with a view to the exploitation of the guano, a Fertilizer whose export is big.

The vacationers of Namibia or elsewhere are attending Swakopmund, north of Walvis Bay, on the other side of the river. They appreciate the charm and tranquility of the site, the softness of the climate and the attractiveness of the beach.

Not need to venture far from the city to discover the Namib, which gave its name to the region and the country as a whole. Dune area of dream, this desert offers mostly rocky extended. There is located Rössing, fantastic site. This would be the most wide open-cast uranium mine in the world; visitors to contemplate the enormous collecting gear the ore.

The north and particularly the Etosha National Park

The most wonderful natural reserve of the country, the Etosha National Park, contains elephants , lions, black rhinos, , giraffes, zebras, antelopes. What attracts these beasts, here is the Etosha Pan, wide cup that the rain water sometimes fills. Has the periphery also, yet, sources strongly mineralized, they maintain the grass, shrubs and trees.

Posted in Africa, English.