NAMIBIA

When it comes to edge-of-forever vistas, they don’t get much more stunning than in Namibia. Situated on the southwestern coast of Africa, the country of over 2.3 million inhabitants is a vast patchwork of landscapes: the long coastal desert of the Namib; the central plains of unforgiving mountain ranges and sand-filled valleys; the haunting Kalahari Desert; and the surprising green of the Caprivi Strip and Kavango. Indeed, the national tourism board lists ‘the landscape’ as Namibia’s ‘defining national asset’.

The country is also home to a diverse population of indigenous peoples, such as the San, more widely known as the Bushmen, and the striking Himba, who rub their skin and hair with red ochre, and who are pictured in the images by photographer Elise Hassey on these pages. And, then there’s the wildlife: lions, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, seals... Game parks and nature reserves take up some 18 per cent of the