Dune 45
Trip Start
Nov 05, 2005
1
35
39
Trip End
Jun 10, 2006
Sossusvlei, Namibia
Monday, May 15, 2006
Anyway, back to the beauty of Namibia.
Before i go on with the details on the nambian sand dunes, I want to give you a little idea of what the overall scenary is like. Hopefully in a little while I'll have photos to attach to these notes.
If you were to fall asleep for anymore than 30 minutes in the truck taking through the Namibian countryside, you would probably miss a lot. The land around Namibia just changes constantly. Driving from the Etosha National park which is famous for its salt lake, you can see that the land changes from a fairly covered in trees and grasses even though they may be gold at some times of the year, to nothing. Just kilometres of nothing with in the distance, some mountains. You can start to see mirages as you drive towards what looks like the sea in the distance. I was having the debate with one of the other passengers, cause neither of us was sure whether we were going mad or whether the sea was approaching. The road looking like it was disappearing into the sea. The closer you got the futher the sea on the road was going. Finally, we realised it was the sea and that the road was not driving into it, it was just a mirage. Even the mountains looked like they were floating above ground.
Now after the swakopmund dunes, you then find a lot of hilly arears with very little vegetation but the tall plant in the middle of nowhere. You may think of it as a catus although they are called quiver trees.
It goes on and on...the change of sceneray is continuous and it is amazing.
It is this kind of sceneray which allows you to see the best sunrises, sunsets and moonrises in Africa (Subjective of course).
Now it is after driving through all of this divers scenary that you finally reach the famous dunes. Where we drove into the dunes, there was around 55km between us and the sea.
We all got onto our truck at about 4.45 to start our journey of around 1 hour to the dunes. We arrived there just in time to walk to the top of dune 45 in the cold sand before the sun rose above the mountains in the distance. As the light started to shine on the dunes, the shadows were creating beautiful patterns all over the place. It was amazing.
These mountains are the reason the dunes will not continue to move inland. The wind will blow from the sea and bring the dunes closer to the mountains,, however this will bounce off and stop the dunes from moving. However, they are currently forming either side of a river. This river goes into the sea. But the dunes are merging into eachother and creating a big barrier. The water still flows but underground. As these dunes merge, the water during the rainy season still accumlates where the dunes have not yet merged, creating a deadend where vegetation can grow.
This is where you can see the dried out lakes where dead trees remain for 900 years. Their roots are so deep, they don't fall down but look very dead.
Anyway, the idea is that this vegetation is what allows a dune to form. Some of the plants grow on top of a small dune. This dune then grows and so does that plant. The roots remain firmly underground where they can still reach water. As the dune grows around this plant it will therefore remain in place. By the time it reaches a certain height, it will then no longer grow on top of the dune. This is reason why these dunes do not move but do spread. The highest is around 300-400 metres high.
Now in these dunes a variety of animals can survive. The kudu, beetles, lizards and snakes all survive on very little water. The kudu can eat the ostrich salad which the bushman also uses. It is a plant which has a lot of liquid in it and allows you to keep going for a long time. Our guide said he survived the 55 Km walk in 7 days with 1 litre of water and survival tips. The beetle has a shell (is that what you call it) which is formed of ridges. These allow him to capture the morning dew by raising is dispropotionally long back legs. The dew then trickles down into his mouth and keeps him going to the next day.
The bushman can survive by sleeping during the day as the sand is too hot walk on. This is the effect of the iron in the sand which raises the temperature to 80C. he protects himself from the sun witha kudu skin on wood. In the evening and night he walks, sets up water traps using hollow roots to suck the water from under the dunes and preserving it in ostrich eggs in the sand to keep cool for later. He can drink the liquid from the ostrich salad to also keep going. He will not get lost because he always finds his north, east, south and west by looking at the ridge of the dunes. In winter the wind blows from the east and creates a ridge facing the west. In summer the wind from the west is stronger and creates the opposite ridge. He therefore can workout from there which direction he should be walking towards. He is so used to surviving here, he can read footprints and work out the rough age of a person from them.
In the past, a lot of the bushmen got killed. They found a lot of diamonds by walking around at night when the moon was bright. Consequently, the white man new where to find them and killed the bushman for his diamonds.
Finally, the plants and the animals also have means of surviving the heat. There one plant wich dries up after the rainy season. It looks dead but as soon as the rain falls, the pods will open and the seeds will jump out with the pressure from the drops. We tested it out and it is visible to the eye by just dropping a little water from a bottle. The shrimps for example will live the rainy sesaons, lay eggs at the end before dying and for up to 30 - 40 years these eggs will survive. When water comes back the eggs will hatch.
After all this little description of what nature does so well, i will stop boring you and hope to attach some photos very soon.
