Rooiklip Guest Farm

As you’d expect from people living all the way out there, the friendly owners of Rooiklip Guest Farm are founts of knowledge on the local area and all the stuff you can get up to. They’ll happily fix you up with experienced drivers for a jaunt through the desert in the farm's own 4x4, or point you towards the trails if you want to try it yourself. The team can also tell you about the three hiking routes that start from the site and take you through the Great Escarpment, a rugged mix of ridges, caves and river gorges, where rare birds nest among the rocks, Rooiklip diamonds glitter in the red earth and leopard tracks line the watering holes. If you’re up for longer jaunts into the wilderness, it’s around two hours’ drive to the Gamsberg Nature Reserve, dominated by its rich variety of feathered residents and its central flat-top mountain, and to the rust red dune landscape of Namib-Naukluft National Park. Should you be heading onwards as part of a bigger African expedition, the capital Windhoek, the dunes of Sossusvlei and the Atlantic beaches of Walvis Bay are about three hours away.