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 Dunes at Sossusvlei Pan, Namibia
September 29, 1997
From the northern Namib we headed south for Sesriem, the closest campsite
to Sossusvlei, where the famous Namib sand dunes start. The road was pretty
awful, including sand and corrugations, and we definitely would not have
done it on the bike, so we felt slightly less guilty about being in an
air conditioned truck with a cooler for iced cold drinks, compared to
sweltering in riding leathers in the 45C heat. At Sesriem, we camped in
the official government campsite, which had (cold) showers and a swimming
pool, both of which were very popular during the middle of the day. The
usual practice is to drive into Sossusvlei (45-50 minutes from the campsite
by car) well before sunrise, then if you have a 4x4 vehicle you can drive
right to the dunes, otherwise you have to walk for 5 kilometers, which
is at least an hour and a half walk on soft sand. Since sunrise and sunset
are the preferred times for photography, as well as being the coolest
time of the day to undertake the walk in, there's not much to do in the
hot middle of the day except sit in the swimming pool. They could really
use a bar with iced drinks, but at least they had a store which did sell
both cold drinks and ice.
Susan on the walk into Sossusvlei dunes
The first day there we arrived at the Sesriem campsite in the late
afternoon, so decided to do a short foray into Sesriem Canyon and save
the main event for the next day. We had planned on a pre-dawn excursion,
but the night was so hot we hardly slept at all, and were not in shape
to get up early. So instead we headed in to Sossusvlei in mid-afternoon,
and started walking to the dunes at 5:00 p.m. Preparations involved applying
significant quantities of sunscreen, drenching our t-shirts and hats for
the evaporative cooling effect, and carrying 4 liters of water, gorp,
and of course, our GPS, which proved its worth. We didn't actually get
to the official Sossusvlei dune that evening, because we kept stopping
to take pictures along the way, as it is all quite spectacular.
Gemsbok (oryx) in the Namib Desert near Sossusvlei Pan
We even saw a group of seven gemsbok (oryx), and that made the trip
worthwhile for me! By sunset at 6:50 p.m. we were still well short of
our destination, so we hitched a ride back to the parking lot with a fellow
Australian coming out in his 4x4. That saved us a long walk out, and enabled
us to get back to the official campsite by 8:30 p.m.
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