Yay We woke at 5:30. Condensed milk coffee, shower and we were on our way to the park gate that opens at 6:30. Desert Quiver Camp is only 3 km from the main gate, I couldn't believe the amount of traffic passing the camp between 5:30 and 6:30 – it was like a national highway.
Once passing through the gate, we travelled 60km from the park gate to the dunes on a tarred road. The area was flat with the Naukliftberge on our left and the red Sossusvlei dunes on our right. As we drove further into the park, the red dunes took over and we were privileged to witness the tallest dunes in the world. Sossusvlei is known as the Namib Sand Sea, a desert region encompassing a diverse array of large shifting dunes.
On our previous visit the sun beat down on the orange red sand lit up the blue sky, giving us awesome photo opportunities of the two colour tones. Today however we drove into mist, for kilometers, obliterating any view the dunes. We had left early to avoid the heat of the day – it was 9 degrees outside 😅. Nature is wonderful, unpredictable and has a mind of its own. We have travelled over 3000km so far – to see one of my favorite places and all we have is white mist surrounding us.
“Arriving at viewpoint ‘big daddy’ dune on right” – in the words of the GPS. Not that we could have missed it, there was a car park full of 4x4’s. The previous 5 km we had travelled on a very sandy 4x4 only track. There is a car park and non 4x4 vehicles have the option of catching a shuttle ride in. I am amazed at the thousands of people visiting the dunes, even at the peak of tourist season. Last time we were one of 2 vehicles in the area. This is Gray’s 4th visit to Sossies and he talks about driving up the dunes and into areas that are now out of bounds.
By the time we started hiking up the dunes the mist had lifted but we never got the clear perfect blue sky today, making the dunes less red but no less majestic, just different. We spent 3 hours hiking up dunes and looking down into pans (Tony going higher than the rest of us). The final walk was into Dead Pan, a clay grey pan full of dead trees, surrounded by dunes that make one feel very minuscule.
We returned to the busy car park and headed into a more secluded area for a well deserved picnic, sarmies with last nights left overs, under a Kameeldoring tree. It is amazing how life can flourish under a tree in the desert. We were visited by sparrows and tit warblers. The tree itself has amazing green twirley seed pods.
We ambled back taking pics and sorting out an electrician for a blown fuse box back home.
We arrived back at Desert Quiver Camp around 2 and went for a well deserved swim in a very cold pool. Bliss – Gray say stupid. The afternoon was spent sipping shandy’s around the pool in the desert.
Another awesome braai with red wine. Life is Kak in Africa ❤️
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