Sun, Sand and Sossusvlei

After a quick turnaround in Windhoek after Swakopmund, it was time to make like tourists again, jump on a tour bus and head south to Sossusvlei. Impossible to pronounce, it is a range of sand dunes in an ancient dried river bed in the Namib-Naukluft National Park in western Namibia. It is almost entirely desert, and as you drive down, the landscape changes and ends up looking like a cross between Mars and the Moon. But very, very sandy.

Almost 4 months in Namibia hasn’t cured my intolerance to early mornings, but even I have to admit that this barren, deserted landscape looks incredible at sunrise and sunset. Watching the sun come up as we sat on top of Dune 45 was stunning, and the way that the light catches the grooves in all of the sand dunes is both infuriatingly difficult to capture on a standard digital camera, and infinitely more impressive seen with the naked eye. That’s my story anyway, and I’m sticking to it.

We then spent the remainder of the morning on a walk through the desert to Deadvlei – a large, dry pan that is completely and utterly dead. Trees have stood there for hundreds of years, but are entirely dried out and look like something out of a Halloween cartoon. The colours are simply fantastic though, and to see such a unique landscape felt very special. If only a pesky grain of sand hadn’t snuck into the lens to make a uniform black spot on all my pictures!

Our journey back to Windhoek took us back to a bakery in the middle of the desert owned by a man named Moose McGregor, who was very excited at the arrival of two Scots and was desperate to share his Scottish ancestry with us. Fortunately, he was also happy to share two extra large pieces of apple pie for the standard price – most exciting. We also stopped at a cheetah rehabilitation reserve outside Solitaire for a short drive with the cats. The foundation has a great ethos, and what their programme offers really is impressive: although we were only there for a very short trip, it was fantastic to see cheetahs so legitimately close and was a great way to finish our Sossusvlei trip before heading up to Zambia!