The Dunes and DeadVlei

This morning was a very early start to ensure we’d get to DeadVlei in time to watch the sun fill the famous clay pan. We were on our way at 6:20am, and arrived in the car park about 30 minutes later.

DeadVlei (means “dead marsh”) - it is inside the Namib–Naukluft Park, the part of Namibia known for its massive red sand dunes. The clay pan was once filled with water and trees that presumably supported a nice ecosystem. Today it is dry white clay, with dead trees protruding from the clay and surrounded by huge red sand dunes.

This is the place that many hikers come to climb the ridge of the “Big Daddy” sand dune, the largest dune in the world. We were just going to walk in to see the clay pan, not hike any of the ridges. Since I’m a slow walker, I decided to make a start while Nick and Mr T were sorting a few things out around the car. A sign at the start of the markers noted that the distance was 1.1km, and I knew that this was easily do-able.

The sign lied!

Think soft fine sand with very occasional areas of white clay that provided a brief break from my footprints sinking down into the sand. The terrain went up for a while, then down, then up again and down, and so on. Finally, after a very, very long uphill climb it was definitely … “wow”!

This really is an extraordinary place, and a photographer’s delight.

I think it took about 40 mins to get there, giving me plenty of time to relax and watch the sun start to fill the area. People trickled in over the next hour, and a few more were climbing the ridge lines high above us – definitely not for anyone with a fear of heights! There was even a group down amongst the trees that seemed to be taking wedding photos – certainly a unique location.

The colours and textures of the dunes are glorious (the photo above should be more red than orange). Sharp edges are a feature of the tops of the dunes, unless oryx and other animals, including people, walk across them. It really was a unique experience to be here, and to see this amazing place.

I was in no hurry to leave, but eventually it was time to head back to the car. Although it’s predominantly downhill, there are many “ups” before the “downs”, and the soft fine red sand still made it difficult, and as it turned out, it was also filling my hiking shoes. As I walked back I met people from France, UK and US, slowly making their way in and asking if it was worth the effort. My response was “absolutely - it’s definitely worth every step – keep going”.

Tonight we’ll be rugging up against the cold to take advantage of the clear Namibian skies. It’s time to play with night photography!

Last night I saw the Southern Cross sparkling high in the sky, with masses of constellations in a way I’ve never seen them before. One was Scorpio. I’d not realised how large this is – and to see the millions of stars that fill in the “key” stars that provide the backbone of the constellation was just mind blowing.

I also saw a part of the Milky Way – and tonight we hoped to see more of it. We’ll be going away from the Lodge area and will be safely away from the roaming oryx that, apparently can become a little angry if they see us on their turf. More on this later!

Tomorrow we’ll be seeing some of the other dunes (no climbing involved) and a local gorge. Then on Monday Mr T will drop us at the local airport – we’ve chartered a Cessna 210 to take us over the dunes to Swakopmund on the Atlantic Coast. We’ll be looking for shipwrecks, “fairy circles” and flamingos! More on those later too.

Mr T will then join us in the afternoon, having driven 6 hours from here, fortunately not on gravel roads.

Location on Map: LINK