Rooms are neat with comfortable beds and small en suite bathrooms, tea and coffee, a telly and that oh-so-important essential in this arid region: air conditioning. Built around a lawned courtyard, the rooms face inwards away from the heat. A bar, popular with locals, serves ice cold Namibian beer at its best and the restaurant, though no award-winning eatery, serves up a typically Namibian range of meats and cheese-covered dishes.

A swimming pool rounds off the list of essential items for a stopover after a long, hot drive and the cool green lawn and palm trees add to the effect. The staff, given a little encouragement, are generally friendly and helpful.

Look at a map and you will see the reason for Keetmanshoop: the town is about two hours' drive to the Fish River Canyon viewpoint and start of the multi-day hike through the canyon; four hours' drive from Lüderitz; six hours to Windhoek and about four hours from the Namibia-South Africa border at Vioolsdrift. Keetmans is also the gateway to the Kalahari north and east of here and as a convenient stop if you're driving up from South Africa towards Sossusvlei.

This region is the transition zone between the Nama-Karoo biome (rocky succulents and hardy shrubs) and the Kalahari (sandy grassland). The landscape is desolate, unique and utterly isolated from the rest of Namibia let alone the world.