Phantom of the Opera - Kolmanskop

The legendary diamond boomtown of Kolmanskop is a favourite haunt of artists and photographers. Since it was finally deserted in 1956, sands hurled by 120kph winds have battered its structures. Formerly stately buildings and sumptuous homes now stand in forlorn and ghostly testimony to a once vibrant settlement of 300 Germans and 800 Oshiwambos.

In its 1920s heyday this town boasted an ultramodern hospital, gymnasium, school, butchery, bakery, soda water factory and power station - all built in the middle of the desert after diamonds were discovered here. Fresh water was shipped in from Cape Town, and opera, music and theatre groups performed in the large concert hall.

In 1980 the recreation hall (kasino), the skittle alley (kegelbahn), an old shop and a storeroom were restored. The shop now houses a museum and a tearoom operates in the storeroom. Visitor permits are required and guided tours conducted daily from Luderitz.

Gemstones to Meteors - The Triangle

The prosperous triangle of Otavi, Tsumeb and Grootfontein is historically and geologically fascinating.

Near Otavi (the place of water), a once-important copper mining centre and German garrison, are several interesting cave systems to explore - but visits must be arranged in advance. Gaub caves are famous for stalactites and Bushman paintings. Uiseb caves are more extensive and have several chambers of impressive stalactites and stalagmites. A'Gamas caves, a five-kilometre-long system, is home to a rare and endemic catfish, which is a translucent pink colour and totally blind. Just outside Otavi is Khorab Memorial, a small plaque marking the surrender of German troops in 1915. Recently Otavi has achieved fame as the site of the discovery of the jawbone of the "Otavi Ape", a primate of evolutionary significance.

Tsumeb, a tiny and exceptionally pretty town, is famous for an ore pipe which has yielded 217 different minerals and gemstones, forty of which have been found nowhere else on earth. Many, including blue azurite, lichen-covered olivenite and aragonite, are on display in the museum. Also on show are relics of an old German ammunition wagon and a cannon recovered from the bottom of Lake Otjikoto. Visitors can also see the mineshaft where Tsumeb's modern history began.

20km from Tsumeb, Lake Otjikoto is an enormous steep-sided sinkhole, 150m wide and 55m deep, formed when the roof of a huge subterranean cave collapsed. A colourful mural of ostriches lines the entrance pathway. From the rim, lined with aloe and fig trees, steps drop down to a rocky viewing platform. Dwarf bream and the rare and colourful Otjikoto cichlid (which broods eggs and young in its mouth) find sanctuary in the turquoise waters. At the bottom lie the remnants of about 350 wagonloads of ammunition and 24 cannon dumped here by retreating Germans in 1915.

Lake Guinas, the only other natural lake in Namibia, is nearby. About five kilometres long, it is twice as deep and even more attractive and less touristy than Otjikoto. The multicoloured cichlid is also found here. Nearby are Auros Mountain Camp and leopard cave (an excellent area for hiking) and the private Tamboti Nature Park, where visitors sleep in railway carriages. About 90km north of Tsumeb, bushman trails are run on Choant Sas farm. Visitors can overnight in beehive San huts, eat fresh kudu steaks beneath Tamboti trees and learn to appreciate the life of a hunter-gatherer.

The upright, respectable colonial town of Grootfontein completes the triangle. The gateway to both Bushmanland and the Caprivi Strip, it has an old German fort and museum but few intrinsic attractions. Nearby, however, is the world's largest and heaviest natural space invader - the Hoba Meteorite. Almost 60 tons and measuring about three metres in diameter, its size and cuboid shape make it unique among meteorites. Composed of about 80% iron, 16% nickel, some cobalt and traces of other metals, it is believed to be between 190 and 400 million years old and to have crashed here about 80,000 years ago.

Not far from Grootfontein are Dragon's Breath Cave - allegedly the world's largest known subterranean lake. About 60m below ground, its crystal clear waters, spreading over an area of four rugby pitches, lie beneath a dome-shaped roof of solid rock. Visitors must join an organised caving expedition in order to see it. Visiting the nearby Gai Kaisa Ostrich Farm is far easier, for curio and eggshell jewellery shopping rounded off by a smoked ostrich lunch.

A Two-way River - The Caprivi Strip

Named after a German Chancellor, this sliver of land is among the world's last unspoilt animal kingdoms. For almost two decades it was a battleground in the country's independence war but today it's the peaceful home of Lozi-speaking peoples and a huge array of wildlife, flourishing in reserves.

The strip is traversed by the Golden Highway that threads east-west through small kraals and scenes that evoke images of pre-colonial Africa. The Kavango, Kwando, Linyati and Chobe rivers bisect the strip, and floodwaters from the Zambezi spread over its flat floodplains. Access to the Caprivi Game Park is restricted but Mudumu, Mamili and Mahango National Parks can all be visited, though 4x4 is required in most parts.

Riverine bush, densely vegetated islands and stands of mopane, Silver terminalia, Red syringa and Rhodesian teak trees characterise the area. Wildlife includes elephant, lion, leopard, Chapman's zebra, sable, reedbuck, tsessebe, oribi, lechwe, sitatunga, hippo, crocodile and Namibia's largest concentrations of buffalo. Over 400 bird species have been recorded, including rarities such as Dickinson's kestrel, Narina trogon, African finfoot, Pels fishing owl, Racket-tailed rollers and Coppery sunbirds. The Okavango River drops 2.5m over rapids at Popa Falls, while at Kizauli village, another attraction for visitors, there is a living open-air museum where traditional crafts are displayed. At Impalila Island, Namibia's eastern tip, the Zambezi and Chobe Rivers converge. From here the latter sometimes reverses its flow.

Seal City - Cape Cross

In 1486 the explorer Diego Cà£o erected a 360kg limestone padrà£o (cross), nearly three metres high, in honour of King John I of Portugal and to commemorate reaching a more southerly point down Africa's Atlantic coast than any European before him. Cà£o died soon after and was buried nearby on a rocky outcrop called Serra Parda.

The cross stood in isolation on this deserted spot until the mid-1800s, when various sea captains saw it whilst collecting guano deposits from islands in the saltpans to the south. In 1893 the padrà£o was dug up by a Captain Becker and hauled off to the Oceanographic Museum in Berlin. In its place he erected a five metre wooden cross. This was eventually replaced by a granite replica of the original padrà£o on the orders of Kaiser Wilhelm. It carried the original inscriptions in Latin and Portuguese, a new German epigraph and the German coat of arms.

In 1974 the area was landscaped, with a pattern of concrete circles and semicircles built on different levels and laid out in the shape of the Southern Cross, the constellation that guided Diego Cà£o's original expedition. They carry a history of the area, the Cà£o family crest and the wording of the original padrà£o in Latin, Portuguese, English, Afrikaans and German. A second cross, cast in plaster from the original and cut from Namib dolerite stone, was erected in 1980 on the site of Cà£o's original.

This isolated cape is perhaps better known for its large breeding colonies of Cape fur seals. Although present throughout the year, the seals are best visited in late October, when the bulls arrive to establish and vigorously defend their territories, or late November to early December, when the pups are born and congregate in dense pods whilst their mothers feed at sea.

The Sheltering Desert - Kuiseb River

This is the river that isn't: the only visible sign of the Kuiseb is a narrow band of green vegetation that tracks its subterranean passage along its canyon floor. The canyon, however, is one of nature's spectacles. Its deep, narrow gorge forms a clear barrier between the world's highest, ever-advancing sand dunes and the gravel plains to the north of the Namib. Sand piles up in the gorge, only to be washed seaward by flash floods that sweep down from the highlands during two or three weeks of the year.

The canyon is dramatic and its 30-40 million-year-old geological past is best observed from Carp Cliff viewpoint, 180m up on its rim. It was near here that two German men, fearing internment during WWII, survived with their dog for two and a half years. One of them, Henno Martin, tells their story in The Sheltering Desert - insightful reading for Namib visitors.

A surprising variety of flora and fauna flourishes throughout this elongated oasis in the world's oldest desert. There are large wild fig and ebony trees, and Camelthorn acacias whose tap roots penetrate 15m below the surface in search of water. Each provides sustenance for the ostriches, springbok, gemsbok, zebra, baboons, jackals and hyaenas that share the shade beneath with a fascinating microcosm of beetles and insects.

In the lower reaches of the canyon, about 200 Topnaar Khoi Khoi people eke out an existence with their goats and cattle. Like their prehistoric predecessors, they harvest the Nara melon, endemic to the area. Cooked, dried and stored, it is a principal source of nutrition year-round.

On its way to the Atlantic, the river percolates beneath its delta to emerge in a lagoon at Sandvis. To visit, you need a permit and a 4x4 vehicle, but you'll be rewarded with a unique ecosystem supporting over 100 species of coastal and freshwater birds, including pelicans and flamingos.

Free-range Rhino - Kaokaland

Kaokaland is Namibia at its most enticing and unspoilt. Isolated by Skeleton Coast dunes to the west, this vast tract of land traverses the pro-Namib plains of gravel flats, grassveld and dusty scrub to reach the interior highlands: the stark Ehomba, Otjveze and Joubert mountains in the east. In the far north the perennial Kunene River flows over the Ruacana and Epupa Falls, while the Ugab River forms the southern boundary. It is a land of incredible rock formations, flat-topped mountains and cone-shaped peaks.

Near the only town in the area, Opuwo, the Hoarusib River begins its annual watery rampage towards the "White Temples" - silt cliffs it has carved in a narrow canyon, which bear an amazing resemblance to Egypt's Valley of the Kings.

Two popular destinations, reached after descending the spectacular Van Zyl's Pass, are Marienfluss and Hartmann's Valleys. Hartmann's is very arid but occasional sea mists can give it an eerie feel. Marienfluss, though softer and greener, is equally beautiful. Among its light scrub and occasional trees, "fairy circles" are found - Namibia's equivalent of corn circles. The cause of these circular bald patches is a matter of some speculation.

The Kaokaland region hosts a wide range of desert-adapted animals, despite the concerted efforts of hunters and poachers over the years. There are populations of gemsbok, giraffe, springbok and Bat-eared foxes, hunted by lion, leopard and cheetah. Hartmann's zebra live in the mountains, and crocodiles and small mammals inhabit the Kunene River environment. Here, the fascinating array of birdlife includes Fish eagles, various bee-eaters, kingfishers, rollers, weavers, sunbirds and Rosy-cheeked lovebirds. Kaokaland is also the last place on earth where the Black rhino can roam free and where the desert elephant is found.

While some hardy southern Africans mount 4x4 safaris into this brooding, inhospitable wilderness, most foreign visitors opt for fly-in safaris. Several companies offering these combine them with vehicle excursions to places of interest such as Epupa Falls and Himba villages, or link them to Skeleton Coast expeditions.

Some operators will organise 1-5 day rafting, hiking and camping trips on and along the Kunene River. A few also run half-day tours to Himba villages. These semi-nomadic people were until recently untouched by modern civilisation, but the practice of trading livestock for Angolan liquor, and the demands of tourists, are beginning to have negative effects on their culture.

To the south, in Damaraland, are a petrified forest of 260-million-year-old trees; the angular dolorite-columned "Organ Pipes"; the most precious open-air rock art gallery in the world at Twyfelfontein - a collection of over 2400 engravings; the famously misnamed "white lady" frieze (a rock painting of a man); and the imposing 700m-high Spitzkoppe - the Matterhorn of Namibia.

All are comparatively easily accessed, so you have no excuse - get off Namibia's (relatively) beaten track and seek out at least one of its lesser-known gems.

Published in Travel Africa Edition Sixteen: Summer 2001 Text is subject to Worldwide Copyright (c)