20 March Sossusvlei and Sesriem

To be able to reach the entrance gate to Sossuvlei dunes at sunrise we had to set off from our lodge at 5.45am. An hour later we were in the queue waiting for the gates to open at 7am. Then is was sun up, gates open and charge! Twenty 4 to WD, off road vehicles and one Golf Polo charging down a 60km tarmac road to a car park. On either side of the road a wide strip of rocky sand and then dunes, high red dunes rising from the desert, continually changing colour as the sun rose higher. Some vehicles peeled off to the car park at Dune 45 (45km from the gate). This is the most accessible dune being closest to the road and not too high so easier to climb.

 

We continued on to the last car park. Here there are a fleet of National Park 4WD Toyotas which ferry you through 5kms of soft sand to the base of Big Daddy Dune, Dead Vlei and Big Mama Dune. There's more walking and climbing, but it's also more photogenic.

Our track took us up the spine of Big Daddy dune. It's the tallest star sand dune in the world. Star sand dunes are in a fixed spot with numerous arms. Crescent sand dunes constantly move ahead of the wind. Big Daddy is 328m high and only 55kms from the sea and all dunes where formed from erosion and wind from the interior; windward slopes to the east, leeward slopes to the west.

Ascending was good exercise, descending was good fun; flowing with the sand from top to bottom and arriving in the Dead Vlei.

Big Daddy

Dead Vlei and heat haze

Preserved Camel Thorn tree

Once there was water here. The ground is dried mud and at the edge of the former lake are the preserved skeletons of Camel Thorn trees. It is estimated they died between 500 and 600 years ago and would have begun growing about 1,000 years ago. Because it is dry here there are no insects to eat the wood. By the time we were in the Dead Valley a heat haze had developed. Time to leave the desert and investigate Sesriem Canyon.

Sesriem

Sesriem Canyon is also in the park and just 3kms from the main gate. It was created by water erosion, sometimes it rains here and when it does the water flows through the canyon making pools. Once mule train drivers would drop a bucket six (ses) strips of oryx hide (riem) through a small gap in the top to reach the water. Over time the roof of the canyon collapsed and it is now open to the sky all the way along. It feels like the end scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark (Petra, Jordan).

By the time we'd finished in the canyon it was 1 o'clock and time to beat feet back to Luderitz – a 6 hour drive and we wanted to be back before dark. On the road we passed a group of ladies and their children travelling between villages in a cart pulled by three donkeys.

Sesriem

Going home

Rain across the plain near Aus