The Wandering Chocoholic

Sand, sand and more sand

I’m not sure if it’s a hazing ritual, a practical joke played on tourists, or the most amazing thing ever. Maybe a bit of all three. But we woke up at 4:30am this morning in the freezing cold to drive the hour or so from the campsite to the national park at Sossusvlei, to climb a sand dune. As soon as the gates opened to the national park, it was like a mini Indy 500 with all the safari vehicles racing to be first to the dune. Yes, that’s right, you heard me, we were chasing dawn to see sand.

But this isn’t just any sand. This part of the Namib desert has some of the highest sand dunes in the world, formed when the winds from four different directions blew over hundreds of years. The most scenic of these, known as Dune 45, is where we unloaded off the truck just as the light was starting to be visible off the trees.

Now, I’ve hiked on sand dunes before, in the Sahara in Morocco, so I know that they’re deceptively tough. What looks like just a small hill from the bottom seems like an insurmountable conquest by the time you’ve made it partway up. It’s nice to have that old standby excuse of stopping for photos to catch your breath.

What photos, though! As we climbed, the sun made its appearance, turning the landscape beautiful shades of red and orange. And, from the top, we had an amazing 360-degree view of the desert — nothing but sand dunes and scrubby brush for miles and miles. I don’t know how to describe it in words, but it was truly magical.

Coming down was a lot more fun than going up. As I half walked, half slid down the dune, I couldn’t help but thinking that it would’ve been a really awesome ski run if this were snow instead of sand. At the bottom of the dune, the guys had breakfast set up by the truck, and we sipped hot coffee and waited for the warmth of the day to arrive.

Sossusvlei and Deadvlei, oy vley

We drove from Dune 45 to the end of the road, where the option was either to hike or to take a 4×4 open shuttle over the soft sand the rest of the way. We all opted for the shuttle, still tired from the dune climb and eager to see the sights. The open vehicle bounced and bumped its way along until we reached Sossusvlei. We saw at least one regular car that tried to make the trip without 4WD. It was buried in a deep trench of sand and didn’t look like it would be going anywhere anytime soon.

Sossusvlei means “where the water gathers”, and the area itself is a mud flat valley surrounded by sand dunes. It does occasionally see water, though not this year with the drought, but it gets enough that there is some life there; scrubby plants, a few small trees, and amazingly even some wildlife. Rising above Sossusvlei is “Big Daddy”, generally thought to be the one of the world’s highest sand dunes at about 325m high. Some people were hiking to the top, but we just did the short walk between Sossusvlei and Deadvlei, about a kilometer over mostly flat soft sand.

Deadvlei is called that because it is home to trees that have been dead for hundreds of years. The working theory is that the trees died by being drowned by too much water, since the surrounding dunes wouldn’t have allowed water to escape the valley. The trunks and some branches still stand, since the trees have such deep roots. The whole site of Sossusvlei and Deadvlei is about to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, and they’re very protective of these dead trees. It’s a bit eerie, and I imagine it would’ve been even more so yesterday since there was apparently a lot of mist. Today, it was clear, so there wasn’t quite a horror movie effect, not that it stopped me from scripting one in my head. My imagination leads me to weird places sometimes.

Lady of the canyon

We relaxed at the campsite for a few hours this afternoon. Then, about an hour before sunset, we drove a few minutes past the campsite to Sesriem Canyon.

Now, the Grand Canyon this ain’t. Sesriem Canyon is about 30m deep at its deepest point. If I’d had more time on this trip, I would’ve overlanded it up from Cape Town and paid a visit to Fish River Canyon, which is the second largest canyon in the world. But, no matter; Sesriem Canyon is actually pretty cool, and its small size means that you can get to the bottom and walk the length in a matter of minutes, not hours.

We headed into the canyon and saw some of the rock formations and the area where there’s permanently water. I walked around, snapping photos and climbing rocks, for a half hour or so. Then, we went back topside to watch the sunset through the trees.

After the sun had set (and the beer had been consumed), we went back to the campsite for one last dinner, and sat by the fire until we’d used up the last of the firewood. A couple of the guys wanted to steal some from the next campsite over, which had another Wild Dog group, but George was more pragmatic; he simply asked. We crowded the fire as long as possible before going to sleep, since once again, it’s cold out there baby. Tonight, I’ve got two wool blankets, two sleeping bags, polar fleece, hat, gloves and a thermal sleeping bag liner. If that isn’t enough to keep me toasty, then I don’t know what is.

The stars are absolutely amazing out tonight. You sure don’t get views like this back home. I’ll miss this when my trip is over.