Day 8

We packed and left the campsite without breakfast, to make sure that we would be one of the first to arrive at Dune 45 in the Sossusvlei area, the iconic red dune that everybody associates with Namibia. And it is a good thing that we were so quick to leave, because I still don’t understand how, but tourists were all of a sudden popping up everywhere out of that middle of nowhere that we found ourselves in.
I walked up the dune barefooted. The sand felt very nice on my feet and although it was quite a climb, the view at the top was breathtaking. When I decided to walk down the dune on the shadow side I had not realized however how incredibly cold the sand at that side would be without having seen any sun since the last dessert night. After a while my feet were even getting numb and started to hurt, so I made a run for the sunny areas again. When everybody had returned we had breakfast near the truck that our guide and cook had prepared for us.
We then continued to Deadvlei, first in our truck and the last part through the lose sand in 4x4s. When we arrived the valley looked stunning, but I have to say that I am still a bit puzzled by that place. There is this large clay/salt plane that looks bright white, with very photogenic dead acacia trees in it, surrounded by huge red dunes that apparently have been there for 5 million years already. Somehow those dunes do not move, no idea where that plane is coming from or why it does not get covered up by the sand, what were those trees doing there when they were still alive and how come they are dead without perishing? Evidence of muddy footprints were still visible in the clay, suggesting that it did get wet and even flooded at some point in recent years or even months, but even then the sand would apparently not stick in it. One thing I did learn however, was why the Oranje River was called just that. Apparently, the red/orange sand in the Sossusvlei area is taken to the sea by the Oranje River, where it washes onto the beach and is swept inland by the wind.
I enjoyed the walk we had there. Once we were halfway the plane, Willem and I decided to walk all the way to the far end. However at some point during that walk it started to get quite hot. On our way back, we saw that we were running out of time, so we really had to pick up the pace, especially in the last part with the loose sand that was a bit longer than we remembered from the walk to the vlei. Luckily we made it back at the agreed time, so our group members did not have to wait for us, but we were a bit overheated by then.
After lunch, we paid a visit to Sesriem Canyon. Since we were here at the end of the dry season, this carved out canyon was completely dry, offering us a beautiful walk with the additional perks of being in the shade and in relatively low temperature.