101 Trail Guide | 2010

NamibRand Family Hideout

Tucked away amid the dunes of the private NamibRand Nature Reserve in the southwestern corner of Namibia, lies a restored farmhouse called the NamibRand Family Hideout.
It offers an authentic desert experience; it’s isolated, has no cellphone reception and keys are optional.
Just behind the farmhouse starts a circular track that can take anything from two to five hours to complete, depending on how often you stop.
The trail is well maintained and clearly signposted. It winds through red dunes dotted with acacias and shepherd’s trees, between blue-grey mountains and across desert grasslands.
Only 1-2 km of the trail requires serious dune driving experience, and if you take it slow you should be fine. Just deflate your tyres to 120 kPa before you leave.
The biggest problem you may encounter will be the urge to drive beyond the designated tracks. But please don’t. Detouring without prior arrangement is strictly verboten.
If you are serious about exploring further, speak to farm manager Theo Wortmann, who can arrange a private guided tour that will take you deep into the mountains.
The house itself is stocked with board games and books, and dune boards will provide hours of fun for the kids.
In the evenings, the veranda is the place to be. From there you have a view on a waterhole just 20 m away that it is visited by oryx, springbok and zebra.
With the animals in front of you and the ink-black sky above, you will truly feel at one with the African desert.

What you need to know

Accommodation:
The farmhouse can accommodate 10 visitors in four bedrooms. It is fully equipped for self-catering and is rented out one family or one booking at a time. It is wheelchair- and eco-friendly, with solar lights and a gas fridge, freezer and stove. And of course there are braai facilities.

What else?
It’s a haven for kids − they can duneboard, play and explore to their heart’s content.

Contact:
Mandy Brückner
00 264 61 22 6803,
00 264 81 127 2957;
ambruck@mweb.com.na,
www.hideout.iway.na

Nearest town: Maltahöhe (130 km)

Best time to go: All year round

Trail distance: 13 km

How long will I be driving? 2-5 hours

GPS: S25.28744 E16.06819

Full Review | Francois Smit (December 2007)

Tucked away amid the dunes of the private NamibRand Nature Reserve, lies a place a little left of the norm. It’s isolated, has no cellphone reception and requires no keys. Even if you could, you wouldn’t want it any other way, says Francois Smit.

I t’s not every day that you can get a taste of a life without ticking clocks, burglar bars or telephones. Privacy like that is a luxury – one for which many people are prepared to pay a small fortune.

An appreciation of this sentiment is perhaps what etches a place like the NamibRand Family Hideout so strongly in one’s memory.

Remotely situated in the southwestern corner of Namibia, just 110 km south of Sossusvlei, for many years the Hideout was just another abandoned ruin, slowly devoured by the desert sands.

All that changed in 1999 when permission was finally granted to Andreas and Mandy Brückner to restore the dilapidated farmhouse. Nowadays you will struggle to find a more authentic and serene experience than that on offer in this rustic yet comfortably renovated family retreat.

The farmhouse, the sole structure on what was once Stellarine farm, has the relaxed atmosphere of a holiday home with its rough-cast white walls, cotton fabrics and rattan furniture. Yet, for all its comforts, it is still the desert that takes centre stage.

Life at the Hideout moves to the heartbeat of the ancient shifting sands. It slows your rhythm to its pace − you eat when you are hungry, wake when you feel like it and in essence get around to doing absolutely nothing. Pure unadulterated escapism – for the adults at least.

You would have thought a desert holiday amid thousands of hectares of nothing would be the worst idea imaginable for two pre-pubescents. Not so. The house is stocked with board games and books, while outside, dune boards dominate play.    

In the evenings, the veranda became the centre of the universe. Many nights were spent there cloaked in darkness, sleeping bags draped over shoulders, hot chocolate in hand, awed to silence by the stillness of the night.

With the sky so black and stars so luminescent, you almost feel you can reach out and touch them, move them around the way a bored housewife relocates furniture.

And while you sit on the veranda, oryx, springbok and zebra pop by like well-acquainted neighbours, visiting the waterhole just 20 m beyond your reach.

And the trail?
Just behind the house starts what qualifies as “my playpen”: a circular track, theoretically three hours long that, according to the various websites, will facilitate an unimaginable intimacy with the land, rather than pushing you and your vehicle to its limits.

Well it does just that, but you will need more time than a mere three hours. (And remember to deflate your tyres to 120 kPa before you leave.)

We packed and left for the trail more than once. Each time we would follow the tracks as they wound through the Plascon-red dunes, intermittently dotted with acacias and shepherd’s trees, between blue-grey tinted mountains and across desert grasslands, and each time we would be distracted, bullied into staying and playing at one spot or another. In the end it took us over five hours to complete.

Only 1-2 km of it actually requires serious dune driving experience, and even then, if you take it slow, you should be fine.

The biggest problem you will encounter may be the overwhelming urge to drive beyond the designated tracks. But please don’t: detouring without prior arrangement is strictly verboten.

The formal trail should keep you busy enough. Forming part of the farm’s management tracks, it is well maintained and clearly signposted.

If you are indeed serious about exploring further afield, speak to Theo Wortmann, the very knowledgeable farm manager who can arrange a private guided tour that will take you deep into the mountains. If that doesn’t satisfy you, nothing will.

Will I be back? Yes! Tomorrow, if I could. In fact, as I write this I have already booked, paid for and confirmed our next visit.

There are few places so financially accessible to locals that offer such a level of comfort and solitude. Perhaps my son summed it up best one night in his evening prayer: “Dear Lord,” he said, “thank you for not having to be in a hurry today.” I couldn’t agree more.

Drive Out says:
NamibRand Family Hideout is a privilege that should be experienced at least once in life. It’s exactly why you bought your 4x4.