NAMIBIA is one of the most sparsely-populated countries on the planet, but with a serious safari vehicle, great desert guide, and methodical planning, the road trip of a lifetime can become reality. Drive north from Fish River Canyon in Namibia’s far south, and watch as Earth’s largest and most ancient sand dunes rise along the harsh eastern Atlantic coastline. Sun-bleached whale bones and centuries of shipwrecks dot the Skeleton Coast, where hyenas and jackals hunt seals on the beach, and the scorched skeletons of acacia trees haunt the Dead Vlei clay pan. Those who brave the adventure are rewarded, as African bush elephant, desert lions, black rhino, and myriad other endemic species of flora and fauna bring to life a landscape often referred to as “the land God made in anger.”