Fury over naked tourists on top of Big Daddy: Group of ‘foreigners’ face punishment for stripping off on giant sand dune that’s one of Namibia’s biggest attractions

A group of ‘foreigners’ are being punished after stripping off and posing on one of Nambia’s top attractions – the Big Daddy Dune in the Namib Desert.

Visitors told a local newspaper on Wednesday that they were stunned to encounter naked people wandering around the sand attraction and are now calling for action against the tourists.

The unnamed “foreigners” now face being blacklisted if they do not want to enter the country’s parks, a tourism ministry official told local media.

The images of the naked male tourists were shared widely on the internet and sparked a flood of sharp reactions.

Kenneth Nependa, vice-chairman of the Federation of Namibian Tourism Associations, told news website Namibian Sun that the behavior risked attracting tourists “who think anything goes in Namibia”.

“It’s very sickening and it really creates a bad image for Namibia,” Nependa said.

He added that the Big Daddy Dune was not only a place to relax for tourists, but also for families.

It is not clear who took the photos and video footage of the three tourists, who can be seen stark naked while their clothes lie next to them in the dunes.

Romeo Muyunda, spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, said the behavior was “extremely shocking” in a statement cited by local media.

He labeled the incident as public indecency and claimed that the tourists’ actions violated park rules and regulations.

“It is a criminal act, according to the laws of the land.

“When this was brought to our attention, we were shocked at the extent to which people could go,” Muyunda added.

He said by the time authorities received the report of the incident, the careless travelers had already left Nambia.

“We condemn this kind of action because it is not only against our morals but also against the laws of the land,” Muyunda said.

He claimed that tourists are generally law-abiding people, but there are a few exceptions.

Muyunda said the ministry is now calling on those who encounter violations of the law or park rules and regulations to report them to the ministry or the police so that action can be taken.

‘We strongly condemn this action. “We can explore the possibility of blacklisting them so they cannot enter any of our parks,” he added.

But some social media users argued there is “nothing wrong with sunbathing.”

‘Why are they in trouble? They didn’t bother anyone,” wrote a user of X, formerly Twitter.

The Big Daddy Dune is one of the three largest dunes in Namibia’s enormous Namib-Naukluft National Park, one of the largest in the world.

The dunes are popular with tourists who hike to the top to enjoy the breathtaking views over the peaks.

It comes after a British tourist was arrested for stripping naked in front of other stunned tourists as they posed for a group photo during a holiday in Thailand earlier this month.

Joseph William Kershaw, 23, was captured on camera by a Krabi resident strolling along Ao Nang beach with his clothes in hand before taking a photo in front of the Sailfish statue.

Images show a gathering of about twenty to thirty young foreigners on the paradise beach, all cheering as Kershaw waved his genitals, ignoring the shocked locals and passing motorists.

After several complaints from locals and after seeing the footage, Krabi Immigration Police and Ao Nang Police Station managed to identify Kershaw and discovered that he was in Thailand on a tourist visa.

He was arrested at his hostel and marched to Ao Nang police station, where he issued a groveling apology.

And in October last year, angry Balinese officials launched a hunt for a tourist who was filmed in a video meditating naked at a Hindu shrine.