Namib-Naukluft to Sossusvlei, April 2022

Back on the road, we pass through the Kuiseb Canyon area and are once again amazed at the harsh, violent and unformed lands of Namibia. The spring grasses wave over the eroded peaks. Images of long-forgotten people traversing the ridges and canyons play on the mind. Deep pools of emerald water snake through the canyon. Tall grass and water are rare sights in these parts.

The lands along the southern road are barren and we pass through areas of high granite rock walls and duned valleys. The turnoff to Sesriem is at the aptly named outpost or settlement of Solitaire which proudly displays a graveyard of cars. The outpost is an oasis on the journey with a good bakery, cafe, fuel station and a small shop. We highly recommend grabbing some of the famed apple pie! It is famous for good reason. We take a brief break while watching the local ground squirrels run from shade spot to shade spot in search of food.

The approach to Sesriem becomes even more dramatic with the arrival of the Naukluft mountain range which borders to the East of the national park.

We arrive in Sesriem in the mid-afternoon. Sesriem is another small outpost or settlement but one which has the purpose of being a base for any and all adventurers who want to explore the Sossusvlei area of the southern section of Namib-Naukluft National Park. Sesriem is another one of the areas which sit on the edge of the ancient Namib desert dunes. Access to the dunes and vlei is only possible by first going through the national park gates.

The plan is to camp the night inside of the Namib-Naukluft park, and wake up early to see the dunes at dawn. However the gate guard into the national park is weirdly unpleasant, a lot of other tourists have the same idea as us and the day permit prices are a little higher than hoped for so we decide not to stay inside of the national park for all of those reasons.

We head back out of the gate at which point the same weirdly unpleasant gate guard accuses us of not paying for entry. Basically, the guard was one of the many gun-bearing Namibian military personnel for whom I have little time for. At best, I’m not a lover of officialdom and an idiot in camouflage who gets to carry a gun around is never something of much value to me. Why put the guard to check your tickets before the ticket sales office! Namibia is a beautiful country but I pity anyone that has to deal with armed Namibian officials. Again, the Namibian Wildlife Resorts (NWR) people are very professional and to be honest very nice! You just need to get past their “I failed basic maths” gun-toting gate-keepers. We leave the guard on somewhat bad terms despite having tried for a calm resolution to a ridiculous situation.

We head for an accommodation option further inland. It’s a campsite within the well named Elegant Desert Lodge. It is indeed elegant and we have the entire campsite to ourselves including access to the pool and bar. The showers are hot and the ablutions clean as a hippo’s tusk. I convince Kirsty that the budget can stretch to two beers and we share one by one to make sure they’re savoured cold all of the way. We barbecue some steaks in the evening under a full moon and fall asleep restlessly to the sound of desert jackals howling in the night.

The next morning we decide it’s ridiculous to be afraid of the Sossusvlei armed gate-keeper and head back with the intention of camping that night so we can view the desert and dunes in the golden hour light. Unfortunately, the gate-keeper is still there and still very weirdly insisting that we have been doing “naughty” things. An hour or so of ridiculous discussions then ensue with his superiors who also try to lay accusations of illegal park entry on us but have to give up when the weight of evidence is so obviously against them. A disturbing undercurrent in a supposedly well-developed area of Africa.

We part ways amicably with the superiors if not the gate-keeper and head into the Sossusvlei area of the national park. We have decided to enter the park as day visitors and again not camp as we are worried about the weird gate-keeper or one of his friends possibly disturbing us in the night. Not a significant possibility but I hate having to sleep with one eye even partly open.

Sossusvlei is incredible! Ancient dunes orange in the afternoon sun stretch for ages on either side as you drive down a single lane tar road. We pass by all of the dunes as we only have so much time in the park. We get to see the famous dunes on the approach to each on the wide landscape. What I didn’t understand before entering the park was how people are allowed to walk on the dunes. I was certain that all those people walking about must destroy them. The everlasting dune ridges however spray fine sand onwards to the next ridge apparently unaffected.

We pass by Dune 45 promising to stop on the way back for some golden hour photography. After under an hour of travel we arrive at the Sossusvlei area. Sossusvlei is one of the sights at the end of the track. The others being predominantly Hidden Vlei, Dead Vlei and some more dunes (they are huge). And when I say end of the track… you have to have a 4×4 and a decent understanding of sand driving to attempt the final four kilometers

We are advised by a forlorn looking NWR driver in the 2×4 parking area to lower our tyre pressure all the way before we make the attempt and not to stop for any reason. We ask why he is looking so hangdog. It turns out that he had taken some French tourists on the 4×4 track in one of the NWR vehicles and was left behind in the desert! The French tourists had convinced the guide to miss the last bus out and take them on one of the ever-present NWR 4×4’s which are left overnight in the 2×4 parking area with the apparent explicit understanding that he would be given a lift back to the park gate. Through some kind of miscommunication, when he brought them back to their car they drove off and left him behind. He says he is too scared to drive the NWR car out as he might be fired for “illegally” using fuel. He is now effectively stuck in a desert. We feel sorry for the guide and give him a litre of water and a vienna sausage with a vague promise to drive him out when we get back.

The drive through the desert sand 4×4 track is manageable but only possible in low range and very soft tyres. I keep the Hilux momentum going barely aware of the landscape passing by. Four kilometers seem like an eternity to us novice 4×4’ers

We make it to the end of the four kilometres and we feel like we have passed a small but defining test for us and our vehicle. The hilux has as ever, impressed us with its tough capabilities.

Our first goal is Dead Vlei with the hope that we will be able to make it to Sossusvlei afterwards. The walk out is… unique… because you’re walking in a desert. Something I try to avoid by choice most times but I have a traveling companion who makes me do the extra five percent in some areas of life and this is one of them. A desert beetle runs alongside entertaining me with its haphazard evolutionary choice of crossing mounds of sand by skittering over so quickly that when velocity is asynchronous to wave amplitude it crashes head first into the next small sand dune. The beetle does this every four or five mini-dunes and makes me laugh. The tracks of the beetle are tiny but each track impresses upon hundreds of grains of sand in and amongst some of the largest and oldest dunes of the planet. The beetle reminds me of Zeno’s unfortunate tortoise wondering whether or not to outpace philosophical treatises and makes me laugh again.

We walk within the imposing presence of Big Daddy, the largest dune in the Sossusvlei area at 325 meters, but not the largest of the Namib Desert. Another beetle joins me on the slog to the Deadvlei and I become attached to the little critters skittering around in their mad way. We walk along the crescent ridge of a minor sand dune and finally see in the distance Deadvlei. It is an iconic image of the Sossusvlei area, but no photograph truly does it justice.

Deadvlei is an old pan of water which dried out hundreds of years ago. Before the pan dried out, there were a number of camel-thorn acacia trees growing in the pan. The vlei dried out so quickly and permanently that the trees were left dead but desiccated and preserved for apparently aeons. The trees are estimated to be 900 years old! These trees have been standing since the collapse of the Toltec Empire, the Second Crusade and the deaths of both Richard the Lion Heart and Saladin. Behind the hard white clay of the vlei and the dark upright trees is Big Daddy dune which kindly gifts a high shadowed pinnacle in the late afternoon light to the pristine scene.

We spend a happy half hour photographing and generally taking in the scene and then start back to see Sossusvlei. We’re not sure we will be able to make it to the ancient pan as it is already starting to get late. In retrospect, the quickest way to Sossusvlei from Deadvlei is to walk the crescent ridge of the dune that you drop off of when you first sight Deadvlei. To get to Sossusvlei from Deadvlei you need to head back almost one hundred and eighty degrees from your approach to Deadvlei. When you get to the 4×4 track after the crescent ridged sand dune keep walking down the track and you will then be at the beginning of the Sossusvlei proper access point.

We made the mistake of walking back to the Hilux and driving towards the Sossusvlei. We quickly found ourselves in even deeper sand and there were no signs to help us in our efforts to get to the final view point. No regrets though because after doing some research I’m still a hundred percent set that Deadvlei is the best site if you are time limited. Instead we walked out into another area of the Sossusvlei and enjoyed the feel of being very much in the middle of nowhere.

We are now a little late in leaving to get out of the park on time so skim over the deep sand tracks lengthening in shadow in the late afternoon light and finish the four kilometer route in good time. Surprisingly! Our forlorn and desperate guide friend that we gave the vienna sausage to is still there. After a hurried conversation with Kirsty we reshuffle things to make room on the packed back seat, and put the unhappy guide in the front passenger seat while Kirsty squishes in the back. We try to entertain him in his misery on the drive back. We put him in the front passenger seat so that someone is behind him in case anything sinister happens. This is the first and only time so far that we have offered a lift to someone we don’t know but we weren’t going to leave the poor guy in the desert as at least five other cars appear to have done. How that was allowed to happen disappoints me. Who leaves a fellow human being in the desert? 

There was enough time to briefly stop at Dune 45 on the way out to get some photos during golden hour. We pass by a large herd of oryx and some flocks of ostrich which were nowhere to be seen on the drive in. The unhappy guide tells us about some of the places he has worked with NWR and places we should consider going to. We have done most of the suggestions which is nice to know. He tells us how he stayed at home for a year because of Covid and the shut down of the tourist industry. Two thirds of the staff were told to go home and they are still operating on a skeleton staff.

We give the guide a small tip at the end to show that not all tourists are such unthinking and uncaring assholes as the people who left him in the desert and leave through the park gate. Happy to see our enemy gate guard isn’t manning the entrance anymore. The drive back to the Elegant Desert Lodge from the previous night is spectacular with the sunset making the Naukluft Mountains a deep violet. Herds of proud oryx canter over the grasslands and a diamond backed jackal runs along a fence line in wait for the desert night.