Sossusvlei

We were staying at the Sossus Oasis campsite, which is a bit out of the way and out of the ordinary!  If you wish to visit the iconic sand dunes, then this is what you see when you get up at 5am to be ready for the pickup at 6am.  It's not like that every morning, but it made the process of getting prepared for the day a bit different.

The drive across the desert in something which was a cross between a Land Rover / Dune Buggy / and minibus was actually quite cold in the early morning air so that blankets were provided to keep the tourists warm.  Our guide did his best to inform the German couple and Russian family whom we were with of some of the history of Namibia and its geology while some people with money to burn soared overhead for a brief moment until they ran out of things to say and their hot air supply dried up nearly as much as the desert.

There are a variety of dunes to see, but a limited number which are readily accessible for climbing.  The dedicated enthusiast gets to Dune 45 (45 kilometres from the entrance to the National Park) and climbs it to see the sunrise.  The sentient beings get up slightly later and do their climbing elsewhere, trying to be back to base by 11am if poss as its is dangerously hot thereafter.  Even at that time, water consumption can be measured by litres per hour!

There is not a lot of wildlife to observe here; a family of baboons who are ready to trash anything at the slightest opportunity; jackals who will come up to your picnic breakfast to see what can be scavenged - just like home really - and then lots of little sand lizards like this who perform wonderful antics to try to keep their bodies cool despite the hot sand.

By Early afternoon we are back to camp and ready to chill out - which takes quite a determined effort in this heat although the naturally heated swimming pool did help.