Namibia

My first self-drive expedition, and I did it alone. Namibia is made for it: long gravel roads, very few people, and a landscape that keeps changing every few hours of driving.

It started in the Namib, with red dunes and the dead camel thorn trees of Deadvlei. Then west to the cold Atlantic and north along the Skeleton Coast, past the rusting wreck of the Zeila, to the fur seal colony at Cape Cross: thousands of animals, a wall of noise, and a smell you don’t forget.

Etosha came next, just as the rainy season began. Storm clouds over the pan, the first green grass coming through overnight, and the animals spread out to follow it. The trip ended at the AfriCat Foundation in Okonjima, and that stay was the most illuminating part of it. Following radio-collared leopards with the team, I learned how much work it takes to keep large carnivores alive in a country where they share the land with farmers.