The Deserts of Sossusvlei

Trip Start Apr 03, 2008
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Trip End Jun 25, 2008


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Flag of Namibia  ,
Monday, April 14, 2008

April 13 & 14. Sand lovers beware. Mario and I had decided to head down to Sesriem from Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, for a 2 day excursion into the desert dunes of Sossusvlei. What was considered initially a good idea, turned foul as a supposed 4 hour journey turned into a mundane 7 hour drive thru the Gampsburg Pass and Sesriem.

The drive started around 8:30am, as we have had early starts most days while in Africa. The sun seems to rise around 7am, and sunlight exists for about 12 hours a day. April 13 was no exception. We took off from Windhoek high-spirited and ready for adventure. After a wrong turn, which in actuality I am not sure can be considered a wrong turn if there are no signs indicating direction, we headed over the Gampsburg pass in our small little 1.2liter Nissan rental. The car itself handled the road just fine, although the tires did not like the constant bumps of the 'gravel' road on which we were travelling Accomodations at Sossusvlei Lodge
Accomodations at Sossusvlei Lodge
 . Gravel is a relative terms as well - I would not call rocks 'gravel' - I would call them rocks. Three hours into our journey we realized we had a flat, which had to be changed. For the next couple hours, it was dicey as to whether or not we would make it on our spare that was put on the car.

Enter Oscar, or whatever the German I call 'Rambo' was called. Nice guy, living out at a hunting farm on the route to Sesriem in the middle of nowhere. Rambo had multiple knives attached to his belt and army pants, and spoke highly of his days in the German army when during exercises he would shoot against tanks of his own army. When broaching the subject of hunting, his eyes lit up as we explained the most effective way of hunting leopard or kudu.

Onto Sossusvlei, we arrived at our camp to find a nice lodge situated basically in the middle of nowhere. It was in fact in front of the park gates to the desert dunes, and thus we were fortunate. The evening meal allowed us a chance to try zebra, hartebeest, ostrich, crocodile, kudu and other meat. Waking up the next day, we took what I consider a very commercial tour into a select part of the park and walked around for about 1.5 hours. This is where the Dead Vlei (dried water basin in desert) is located. For those of you who have spent much time in a desert environment such as the Sahara, Sossusvlei was a bit disappointing in that the sights you see are limited.
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