Just as much sand as the Sahara

Sossusvlei National Park

Road signs out in the desert

We left Luderitz after our walking tour, giving ourselves a half day start. Even though we had paid for the night we didn’t see the point in staying any longer. Google gives you approximate times but you don’t really know how long it will take until you drive it as it all depends when the road was last graded. Lindsay said he hadn’t expected so many of the roads to be gravel. I knew they were and had told him, but he obviously wasn’t listening. We couldn’t get reception in town but we could get it about 20kms out of town. We had to stop as I had some important emails to attend to. Life goes on.

Our campsite at Betta

We had no idea where we would stay that night. We could see a town called Betta about 2/3 of the way to our next destination but Tom Tom couldn’t find it and we had no data reception to ask Google when we tried. We went passed a sign with the name of a camp they said was 50kms up the road so that is where we would stay. We passed another farm stay on the way but decided to press onto this other one. When we got there it said the camp was 5kms down their driveway, which wasn’t a problem. The problem was that the driveway was very rough and Lindsay refused to go any further and turned around. So we are driving, driving and it’s getting later and later and I’m getting worried. In Australia we always start looking for a camp around 4pm as you need to be off the road by sunset because of wildlife and it's no different here. We should have stopped at that farm stay camp but it was too far back to turn around now. We passed a few farms but no-one had a camping sign out. The road started getting rougher and the corrugations were worsening. You don’t want to be driving these sorts of roads when you are tired. Then we come to Betta. It’s an oasis in the middle of nowhere. We are the first campers there and they have five campsites as well as some bungalows and chalets and a petrol station. It’s the cheapest, nicest campsite during the whole trip. The showers and toilets are clean, in good condition and with good water pressure. They even have bathmats and hand towels! The hot water donkey is put on at 5:00pm, so you can have a shower at 5:30pm. Each campsite has a covered walled sitting area with table and benches, power and a sink with water. They have a pet Oryx that chases their two dogs. Why couldn’t all the campsites be like this one? Google says it 429km from Luderitz, about 4 hours but it took us longer than that because of our road-side stop.

I didn't bring a hair dryer as the National park camps in Australia done have power, but all of these do!

We only had 169 kilometres to go to Sesrium but it takes more than the estimated two hours. The road gets worse. A couple of hundred kilometres either side of Sossusvlei are the worst roads we encounter in the whole country. Later in the trip we meet a couple who broke a shock absorber and destroyed two tyres on this road. After lunch we go down to Dead Vlei so that we know what to expect at sunrise the next day, it's going to be an early start. When we get back I go to have a shower but I can’t find any light switches and it's starting to get dark. I get undressed and turn on the tap but no water comes out. I put a towel around me, grab my stuff and try another one. The hot water dribbles out but the cold water is better. I call out to someone in the other shower. Is your shower awful? Yes, she says. Any hot water? No. I'm not that tough, no cold shower for me, I've brought some baby wipes. The next day I ask a cleaner where I can find a better shower and she points me towards another shower block, I make sure I have one during the day before the hot water runs out as they must be solar.

You never see a picture like this of Dead Vlei, but this is what it looks like when you arrive

Staying in the national park or an exclusive lodge are the only options for accessing the park an hour before normal opening time at sunrise. Normal park hours in July are 7:30-18:30. Passing through the gate at 06:35, there was no-one to be seen. It’s a 60km drive on bitumen with a 60km/hr speed limit, so it takes an hour. Then you have a 15 minute 4WD on really really soft sand to the next car park. Anyone with a 2WD needs to walk or wait for a national parks car to take them in. Today was really windy so we had our cameras in dry bags to keep out the sand. Dead Vlei is our destination. No one takes any notice of the 60km speed limit. It’s supposedly a 6km return trek in but it doesn’t seem that long. It is tiring though as you are walking in soft sand. We have plenty of time as the sun hasn’t started lighting up the dunes yet as it has to get over Big Daddy first.

This is what the ground is like - it's a pan

Dead Vlei in the afternoon

Photo tip: the sun lights up the left hand side of the pan (where the big sand dune is) in the afternoon. In the morning, it’s on the right hand side.

We weren't sure where Dead Vlei was, so decided to just follow everyone else. I had read that you had to walk over a large dune before you got to it, but it is right next to the Big Daddy dune.

The trees don't rot because the air is so dry

A bottle of beer and a jar of spaghetti sauce broke in our fridge most likely from the bumpy 4WD section, ruining all our food not only with the smell of beer and tomatoes but shades of glass. Our neighbours whom Lindsay had been chatting to all afternoon were going to the restaurant for dinner, so we joined them.

Dead Vlei in the morning

Dunes on the other side of the carpark

The sun is blocked by Big Daddy sand dune in the morning

Dead Vlei morning

One of many wind gusts that come through sending sand everywhere

Dune 49 in the afternoon

On our second morning we head for Dune 42 which is 42kms from the gate, and the one just before that. Dune 45 is the most famous dune, but it’s not very picturesque. All the tour companies take tourists there to climb it, it saves them from having to navigate the 4WD section of the road and 15kms closer than Big Daddy.

The dunes we photographed have nice trees at the bottom to give you some foreground interest. All the buses had gone to Big Daddy and Dune 42, so people trying to avoid all those tourists came to our dune and climbed up and sat there waiting for the sun to rise, leaving their footprints all over the sand which I have had to get rid of.

Dune in the morning, not sure which one. I thought is was 42

The campsite is large and very busy. On the second day the tourist buses started arriving, it was like someone had just opened the flood gates or maybe school holidays had just started.

Oryx

Next stop: Walvis Bay. 319km on gravel

Want to start at the beginning of the blog? Namibia - Post 1


Disclaimer - All of the clouds in these skies have been added as there were none