Namibia

Forget climbing to Everest Base Camp or mountain biking down Bolivia’s Death Road.  Go adventuring off the beaten track with our list of This year’s adventure travel destinations, and you’ll easily be the backpackers with the best story at the bar.  From sandboarding the world’s biggest dunes to climbing inside a volcano, here are the top ten adventurer’s travel destinations.

HIKE HE SINGING SAND DUNES OF THE GOBI DESERT, MONGOLIA
When Marco Polo travelled across the Gobi Desert, some 750 years ago he was scared for dear life because he thought the sound of the sands were the sounds of evil spirit.  Well Khongoryn Els sands dunes of Mongolia’s Gobi Desert have this rather odd habit of, singing, which is not normal for sand dunes. It’s a fairly rare phenomenon and just about 30 dunes worldwide are musically inclined — the rest are pretty quiet.   It's more of a constant low rumbling moan, with the occasional booming explosion - but it makes for a slightly odd encounter in the desert. Scientist said it’s something to do with the curve of the sand dunes forming a natural amphitheatre.

Sossusvlei in the Namibian Desert is one of the landscapes making the difference to the Namibian destination. This region also forms part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park, making it perfect for a Balloon Safari. Stretching 1,000km (1,000 miles) along the Atlantic cost of Namibia and varying from 50 – 160km (30 – 100 mile) in width expanding into southwest Angola.  The Namib is one of the world’s oldest desert over 50 millions years of dry times behind it. The Namibian desert has an average of less than 10mm (0.4inch) of rain each year.