From Kolmanskop, we drove back to Aus, and then North to the Tiras mountains, or more precisely to the Kanaan N/a’an ku sê Desert Retreat. We initially didn’t consider a stay in this area, but our friend Rolf Frei, who published a beautiful image book about Namibia, strongly recommended it. Thank you Rolf! ? On the way, we were already greeted by the vast numbers of oryx antelopes that live in the area.

N’aan Desert Retreat is located in a vast desert that is surrounded by the mountains. When we visited the site, it had rained some weeks before so the desert turned into a wide-open grass savanna. The savanna view from the campsite is impressive, and a nice contrast to the more urban stop in Lüderitz on the previous day. After setting up our camp, we just sat down for a couple of minutes and let the width and the silence of the grassland sink in.

Despite the calming nature of the savanna, Kanaan Desert Retreat is not void of activities. You can book horse rides – which you should book early in advance –, relax at the pool, go hiking, or witness the feeding of the two cheetahs that were raised by the retreat’s owners. We missed the cheetah feeding by half an hour, so we decided to do the desert hike. 
The hike follows a dry river bed, and then goes up onto a small hill from which you can have a marvelous view of the landscape. After a 90 minutes hike, we finished the day with a braai and a shower in the open sky showers.

Although our review of K’aan Desert Retreat is much shorter than our other travel blog posts, the experience was not less memorable. It’s hard to put in words how awesome it is to camp in the wide-open space of the Tiras Mountains. This was definitely one of our favorite campsites!

OUR TRAVEL ROUTE FOR THE ENTIRE TRIP

If you want to learn what else we experienced in Namibia, check out our travel route for the entire trip – including reviews of the most exciting places!

• Last Stop: Kolmanskop
• Next Stop: Sossusvlei
• Overview: Our entire route