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| On top of Dune 45 at Sunrise |
In all the pamphlets and advertisements for Namibia, you see BIG, red sand dunes. In fact, some of the biggest dunes in the world. This area was the place I most wanted to visit in Namibia, and turns out to be a place called Sossusvlei, about 55 km from the coast. It is hot and barren!! Sossusvlei is a series of 300m high sand dunes of the Namib desert. They have, however, had a crazy amount of rain this year compared to most years, and instead of sand dunes everywhere, there are some large grassland areas too.
Upon arrival in the late afternoon, after our longest drive of 650km, it was too hot to do anything but chill at the bar, and lounge around the pool. It would be an early morning to catch sunrise high on one of the dunes.
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| Dune 45 overlooking more dunes |
Our group is very organized, and all willing to help each other, so we managed to hit the road very early and were second to the gate into the park (at 6AM). Dune 45 is the dune that people are allowed to climb, which is good that they limit the human impact to just one area. We had arrived to try to catch sunrise on the top of the dune. There was a challenge set out by our guide Emma, as she said that the fastest person from any of her groups, made it up the dune in around 14 minutes. I'm always up for a challenge, so after hustling past some slow people on the ridge, I had my sights set on the only person ahead of me. I was, however, also enjoying the view, but realizing that the sun was getting very close to rising over the hills in the distance. No one made it to the top before sunrise, which was very disappointing, as the park staff were very confident about the time the gate would open to allow us to see the sunrise. I never passed the girl in front, but still made it up in 14 and a half minutes, hopefully close enough to the record - but paid for it the rest of the day!!
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| Groups climbing up Dune 45 |
It was quite the sight, up on top of these monsters. Red dunes in all directions, sand as far as the eye could see. Michelle and most of our overland group made it to the top, and we enjoyed the scene together. Then, of course, I can't climb UP a dune without running down, and this was a long one!!! Even Michelle got into the act, running down the side.
Emma met us at the bottom with a nice fry-up breakfast, then we were back on the road to Deadvlei. A bit of a tourist rip-off, as we had to pay $100 Namibian dollars to catch a Land Rover to the site, after paying entry to the park. But, this was THE place I wanted to see - the area of stark, dried up lake bed, with dunes all around and the remnants of trees (camel thorn-acacia trees) scattered throughout, carbon dated to 900 years old.
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| Deadvlei landscape |
About 2 million years ago the dunes on the Atlantic Ocean started slowly moving inland by wind action and river action eventually pushing them 55km inland where they are now relatively stabilised. Apparently, a dune built up and blocked the flow of the river to the ocean, creating a pool on one side of the dunes. This pool created some vegetation life, and trees grew within the area. As another dune developed upstream and blocked the flow of water to this area, the trees died. Since it was so dry, they did not decay, but have remained in a dead state for approx. 900 years. This area is called Deadvlei (meaning ??). The dunes keep developing upstream and there are various stages of this evolution evident in the area.
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| Group Photo at Deadvlei |
It was very interesting, and a photographers dream. Too bad it was a little busy, and as with all tours, not enough time in the area. We managed to take many interesting and creative photos with the dried up mud patterns, spindly trees, and the smooth dunes. I also took some funky group shots with us all scattered throughout the trees.
A highlight on the drive out was seeing a family of ostrich, Mum and Dad with about 18 little baby ostrich chicks. With the dunes behind, very cool. There were also tons of Springbok, Oryx, and other antelope around.
It was an area well worth visiting, and we may return on our 2 week break if we can find a way there - there is no public transport to Sossusvlei and it's a long way out-of-the-way!! *Stub
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