In the Sossus Vlei reserve you have to drive 60 km from the gate to get to the vlei, and even then you are still a few km short of the destination. So by about 8:30 am we arrived at the parking area where you must leave your vehicle, unless you have a proper 4x4 to go further on the dune sand. We chose to use the shuttle service from this point, so we bundled ourselves onto the back of a land rover and went for the bumpy ride to Dooie Vlei, and then Sossus vlei.
First stop - Dooie Vlei (Dead Pan - no kidding!). The shuttle dropped us off and the guide pointed us south and said walk over those dunes about 1 kilometer, and there will will find it. so we did. Dooie Vlei is amazing. It is an almost other-worldly experience, because the landscape is just so weird. You have red dunes all around, a dry pan which is almost white and completely flat, and then all these dead trees standing like stark skeletons in the pan. OK - again the descriptions fail us, so check out some selected photos.
Next stop - Sossus Vlei. This time the shuttle brought us closer to the destination. Sossus Vlei actually has water in it, which is very unusual in winter, but is yet more evidence of the very high rainfall this year. The water is a milky-murky color, which explains why the vlei becomes so white when the water dries out - it carries this fine white dust in suspension. There is a huge dune which projects right into the vlei so that the vlei forms a huge horseshoe shape around it. Clinton had had Jungle oats for breakfast, so he decided to climb the dune, while the rest of us mere mortals stayed closer to vlei-level. There was a Jackal skulking around the vlei area, which means we have now seen Jackals in Etosha, in the Damaraland desert, and in the Namib desert area. They seem to like these conditions.
As there has been good rain and there is still water, there is some green vegetation around, and so we had some really interesting pictures with red dunes, white vlei, brown sand desert, green plants and blue sky. It is difficult to describe how such desolation can be beautiful, but it really is.
About 1 pm we finally dragged ourselves away from Sossus, fueled up and drove over 500 km on good sand roads and then tar roads to get to Keetmanshoop by soon after 6pm. We were booked to stay at Birds Mansions. When we pulled up outside we were a little apprehensive - I had flashes of David Kramer strumming and singing "Die Manne van die Royal Hotel". But it turns out that Birds Mansions has been renovated, and though it has old bones from a bygone era, it was really very comfortable, and the interior is quite contemporary.
We met Brian Venter (a Namibian brother who is pioneering and serving the congregation in Keetmanshoop) for dinner. Brian said he has been following the blog (yay - one follower at least!), and so he told us about some of our adventures. And then we crashed.
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