Another Missed Sunset

  Fish River Canyon, Namibia
Saturday, May 6, 2006

Dune 45 - Sossusvlei

Me on top of Dune 45

On top of Dune 45 Sossusvlei

Another cold night in the desert, we were up and waiting at the entrance gate to Soussusvlei for when they opened at 5:30am.

Sand dune opposite Dune 45

Unknown Sossusvlei sand dune

View from top of Dune 45 - Sossusvlei

View from top of Dune 45 - Sossusvlei 2

Walking up Dune 45 - Sossusvlei

Looking up Dune 45 before it had been trampled by

We did the 45km to Dune 45 and climbed most of the way to the top for sunrise. I was barefoot and the sand was freezing. It was a tough old climb.

The dunes were an apricot colour and absolutely beautiful. To add to this the sky was a brilliant blue and the valley was a light green. It was probably one of the most beautiful sights I'd seen on my whole trip. The valley also contained trees, that seemed for the most part dead. It didn't take long for my bad mood from the previous day to disappear.

After breakfast we were back on the road for 9:30. Not nearly enough time to appreciate Soussusvlei.

Again we were racing through some more fantastic scenery to reach Fish River Canyon for the sunset. We should have had extra time here and camped halfway along the road to the canyon, that was if we hadn't of wasted the extra day in Maun.

Fish River Canyon from Sossusvle

The tyre we had to replace on the overland truck

In race mode we really didn't feel like we could ask the truck to stop and admire the views as we were in such a rush. In the end we were forced to stop as our shredded tyre became so bad it burst. At that point we knew we would not make it to the canyon for sunset.

The roads here, and the population were scarce. In the 90 minutes it took to fix the puncture only 2 cars passed and we could count the number of houses we'd seen that day on our fingers (and maybe toes). Eventually we moved into cattle and sheep country and eventually arrived at the canyon for just after 7pm. 2 hours after sunset!