Strict operating hours are also enforced between sunrise and sunset, and traversing any of the named areas at any time without a valid permit is an offence and can lead to a hefty fine. For some areas, such as the Namib Naukluft Park and the Dorob National Park, permits can be obtained at the closest town. For all other areas permits can be bought at the Ministry of Environment and Tourism offices in Swakopmund. Permits can be often be obtained at the entrance to these areas. Around two fifths of its land is under some form of conservation management and entry permits are required for all national parks, state-operated nature reserves, protected areas and national heritage sites. It’s important to remember that Namibia is dedicated to the conservation of its natural resources. It’s accessible – and signposted – from the main B2 road from Swakopmund to Windhoek. Much of the film was made east of Swakopmund, in a rocky and undulating area known as the Moon Landscape. The termite mound-style towers were a mix of sets at film studios in South Africa and Sydney, enhanced with digital features based on the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. Miller was determined to keep the rough, grimy physicality of the original trilogy by keeping photographic trickery to the minimum, though one wholly invented element is the towering ‘Citadel’, ruled over by the monstrous Immortan Joe ( Hugh Keays-Byrne, Toecutter from the first Mad Max). The Skeleton name is supposed to have been inspired by the bleached bones of whales and seals, later becoming attached to the rusting hulks of grounded ships. Namibian bushmen once called the region ‘The Land God Made in Anger’, while Portuguese sailors referred to it as ‘The Gates of Hell’. Swakopmund stands at the southern end of the dramatically named Skeleton Coast, the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean coast of northern Namibia and southern Angola. The production was centred around the country’s second city, Swakopmund, at the mouth of the Swakop River. It was intended to follow the previous films to the region of Broken Hill in New South Wales but – wouldn’t you know – a couple of years of unusually heavy rainfall had turned the blasted wilderness green.Ī new desert location was found in Namibia, on the west African coast north of South Africa.
George Miller himself, the director of the original Mad Max trilogy, returns to the world of post-apocalyptic anarchy with a new Max in the form of Tom Hardy, and an unexpected feminist slant that sees Imperator Furiosa ( Charlize Theron) taking off with a truck full of enslaved women to find freedom in the dimly remembered ‘green place’ where she was born.įans of Australian cinema will recognise the sly nod to the spiky VW from Peter Weir’s 1974 The Cars That Ate Paris in the design of the fleet of attacking cars.