Top Ten Southern Africa Off-the-Beaten-Path Adventures

It's easily one of the most spectacular rides in the world: You're galloping through the Namib Desert, the world's oldest, surrounded by 2,000-foot-high, blood-red sand dunes. Thousand-year-old plants that resemble exploded cabbages grow on gravel plains that see rain once in a century. Lonely canyons echo to the barking shout of baboons and the nighttime cough of leopards. Then, suddenly, green oases spring up, overgrown with camel-thorn and tamarisk trees, where herds of desert antelope gather in the shade. Continue on to sun-blasted mountain ranges where ice-cold springs bubble straight from the rock. Trot through this barren wilderness with Reit Safari, which offers 10-day rides on Namibian Hanoverians (German horses) and rehabilitated mustangs, starting on the mountains west of Windhoek, Namibia's capital, and ending in the ocean of the aptly named Skeleton Coast.