Featured Destination: Namibia

Namibia

Namibia is located along the southwest coast of Africa. It's a huge country with only 2.1 million people living there. Namibia has a beautiful but fragile ecosystem and the citizens here are fiercely protective of their environment. As a matter of fact, Namibia's the only country in the world that includes conservation as part of its constitution.

If you want to see this rugged country, you need some time, a sturdy vehicle and the guts to get off the beaten track. It is said that in Namibia your adventure begins where the road ends, and so we take flight on a journey of epic landscapes, animal kingdoms, and ancient tribes.

What is Namibia?

Namibia's the jewel of Africa.  It is a hidden gem waiting to be discovered. This is a world of distant horizons where grassy plains yield to rugged mountains. There are dune seas, bustling salt pans and lush rivers. It’s like everything you ever imagined a desert would look like: Dunes that have never been walked on stretching for as far as the eye can see. And yet, the landscape here is constantly changing.

It is a true wilderness. It's an open range like in the old days of the Wild West. The Skeleton Coast, often called the "sands of hell," is treacherous as the sandy shoreline constantly shifts with the winds and dense fog forms off the coast. The best way to see the areas which include shipwrecks and whale skeletons is by helicopter.

Namibia is its people, different shades with different traits. We sing, we dance, kicking dust to the air. There are only two million people in Namibia, with over a dozen ethnic groups and languages, yet they all co-exist peacefully. Education is a priority, and the vast majority here are literate. Perhaps the most treasured are the aristocratic Himba, one of the last nomadic tribes in the world of pastoral nomads living in the remote desert who cling to the traditions of their ancestors.

The beautiful country in southwest Africa gets about 300 sunny days and less than 1 inch of rain every year. In the desert, water can mean the difference between life and death. With water so scarce, the women have learned to bathe in smoke. Namibia is an ancient desert, with history carved in the curve of each dune.

Here along the western coast is the Namib. It is the world's oldest living desert. It never rains here, but there is water.  It comes from the mist that rolls in every day, and life around here survives on the little dew droplets that form from that mist. So from the tiniest beetle to the largest desert elephant, the rule here is, adapt or die.

In Namibia, the animals roam freely, nurtured by the people. It's the lifeblood of the land. Namibia has elephants, lions and even a huge colony of cape fur seals along the coast. There are over 12 million oysters in the bay. There are gentle giants and fast felines that inhabit Namibia. In years past, poaching nearly decimated many of the major species but after gaining independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, Namibia became the first country to protect the land and wildlife in its constitution. Through an innovative system of local conservancies, communities now monitor their own natural resources. Today, over 40 percent of the country is protected.

The new culture that the people have is it's ours. It belongs to us, nobody else, and if we don't look after the game, then who's going to look after it? We want our following generations to see what's happening and then benefit there from.

These days their endangered species are thriving like the black rhino, once on the verge of extinction. Its population has tripled. Namibia's model of conservation is now a blueprint for other nations. Namibia is the Skeleton Coast, a no man's land, where shipwrecks lie forgotten.

The ocean here is so treacherous and the climate so harsh that sailors who crashed on these shores lived only to die in the desert. Bones of their ships are all that remain, scattered along their coastal grave. Damaraland, which is east of the coast, has awesome elephants thriving in bone-dry conditions. Namibia is a playground where you can soar on the wings of adventure if you're bold enough to dare. Camps range from rugged to five-star luxury and if you're up for a thrill you can leap out of the waves, race down slopes as tall as skyscrapers, take flight above the dunes or simply lose yourself in the wild. Then again, in Namibia it's wise to remember you're never truly alone.

In Namibia, diamonds, which are a girl's best friend, are mined in the open sea. It is also fast becoming a center for extreme sports with champions like Henrik May, the world record holder for downhill sand skiing, skiing down the sandy slopes. Surprisingly, due to the cool air grapes thrive. 

Popular drinks include German Heritage beer, and Savannah Dry. It is truly an extraordinary place with so much to see. That is Namibia.

For more on Namibia, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namibia

For videos, visit http://allday.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/07/8678801-where-in-the-world-is-matt-the-skeleton-coast-in-africa
Source: Where In The World Is Matt Lauer on Today on MSNBC