The Skeleton Coast is, properly, the coastline between where the Kunene and Ugab rivers open into the Atlantic, but the name is often used for the entire desert coastline, even as far south as Lüderitz. The Skeleton Coast parks take in nearly two million hectares (4,940,000 acres) of sand dunes and gravel plains, and are among the world's most inhospitable waterless areas. Sailors washed ashore from shipwrecks along the coast had simply no chance of survival. A misty fog hangs in the air for much of the year giving the barren coast an eerie feeling. The National West Coast Recreation Area is an area of coastal land, 200km (124mi) long and 25km (15.5mi) wide, from Swakopmund to the Ugab River. It's popular with white anglers, mostly from Zimbabwe and South Africa, who try their luck with the local blacktail, galjoen and steenbras.The fur-seal reserve at Cape Cross is more concentration camp than sanctuary, breeding Cape fur seal (not really a seal at all, but a sea lion) for commercial purposes. It operates a slaughterhouse beside the snack bar and some areas are off limits, but it's open to visitors and you can see the colony lounging imperviously on the rocks. The skins are sold for fur and the rest of the seal becomes a protein sludge used for cattle feed. Portuguese explorer Diego Cão, first European to set foot in Namibia, erected a 2m (6.5ft) high cross here as a tribute to the king. The cross stood for over 400 years until a German sailor took it home in 1893. A replica was erected on the site the year after.

The extra bit of Namibia, the skinny bit that extends eastward separating Zambia from Botswana in the country's north-east, is called the Caprivi. It's nearly 500km (310mi) long, but dead flat. There are rivers that have cut their way through the region - including the Kwando, Chobe, Okavango and Zambezi - and the Caprivi's communities have grown up along them. Once the San people, who are still well represented in the Caprivi, roamed the area as hunter-gatherer nomads, but their lives too are sedentary now. The area boasts the Mahango Game Reserve and several others, and also the most remote part of Namibia - Katima Mulilo, just 4km (2.5mi) from Zambia but 1200km (744mi) from Windhoek.The Caprivi is slowly opening up to independent travellers who hitch between Zimbabwe, Botswana and into Namibia, and its well-made roads have made the region accessible.

The Central Plateau is the prize of colonialism. This is prime agricultural land and the German and Afrikaner settlers and their families who have inherited this area run sheep and cattle on vast, wide-open rural properties, or grow citrus fruit and market vegetables. Towns are widely spaced, and Namibia's main arterial north-south route, the B1, cuts through the region. This road is so good that most passers-by pass by way too fast to appreciate the surrounds.The small town of Rehoboth was established as a Rhenish mission station in 1844, but was abandoned 20 years later only to be revived in the 1870s by the Basters (literally 'bastards'), an ethnic group of mixed Khoi-Khoi/Afrikaner origin who are very proud of their history and name (rather than considering it offensive, the people are proud of their name and their heritage). The Reho Spa complex is built around a thermal spring, and there's a fine museum housed in the 1903 residence of the first postmaster.Brukkaros is a 2km (1.2mi) wide volcanic crater which can be seen from the B1 between Mareintal and Keetmanshoop. From the car park there's a path that leads to the crater's southern rim, a half-hour's walk away, and from there you can enter the crater and proceed to an abandoned research station. Camping is permitted anywhere in the crater and Brukkaros's famous clear night skies make this an unforgettable experience.The central crossroads in southern Namibia is Keetmanshoop, a town of 15,000 people and the centre of the regional wool industry. Keetmanshoop has more petrol stations per capita than any other place in Namibia. It was originally a settlement for the Nama people, and the Rhenish Mission Society founded a town there in 1866. Here too are many fine colonial-era buildings, and Keetmanshoop Museum is well worth exploring. Tours are available from the town to areas of interest in southern Namibia, including the mighty Fish River Canyon and Lüderitz.