Namibia, South Africa, and Istanbul Slideshow - Fall, 2024

Sally and I travelled to southern Africa last fall - primarily for a train excursion - and then had a two-day layover in Istanbul on the return trip.

I had planned to share the photos from the entire trip, but I ended up having so many photos from just the two days in Istanbul that I decided to split it into two shows; This slideshow just covers our two weeks in Namibia and South Africa.

We flew into Johannesburg and took a short hop (plane) to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia the next morning. We then hired a car and driver to take us to the coastal Namibian city of Swakopmund where we spent a couple of days.

From Swakopmund we transferred by car to nearby Walvis Bay (also on the Atlantic coast) where we boarded our train - The Namibian Safari - operated by Rovos Rail of South Africa. On the train we had a berth with a bathroom, small sitting room and a king bed. Lunch and dinner were both 4-course events with wine pairings. Roughing it. Safe to say that we had a wonderful experience.

The train took us inland from the coast and up through central Namibia and finally to Etosha National Park where we spent the night and took two safari trips.

Then the train brought us back to Windhoek where we were transferred to several small planes to fly to the coastal sand dune region Sussusvlei. There we spend a night among Namibia's iconic red sand dunes and visited the Namib-Naukluft National Park.

On the way south through Namibia we visited the mining ghost town Kolmanskop and the coastal city of Luderitz, both related to Namibia's history as a German colony.

Finally we entered South Africa and visited the famous de Beers diamond mining city of Kimberly.

We spent another day in Johannesburg and then home via Istanbul for two days.