Playing in the Sand

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Trip Start Jan 30, 2007 Previous
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  Sesriam, Namibia
Thursday, May 3, 2007

We have fulfilled our tourist obligations to Namibia now by visiting
Sousousvlei, the massive sand dunes which so often grace tourist
brochures, magazines, etc. To bike to Sousousvlei would be a logistical
challenge of 4+ days, with no water for 160+k of very bad dirt roads,
so we gave that a big miss and rented another trusty VW Golf Chico. Bad
choice. The poor little Chico tires are tiny 13" things, I'd swear
they're plastic, and the suspension is only slightly better than our
bikes. Driving on the loose gravel sections was like driving on 2-3" of
fresh snow with crappy tires - made for many intense, long hours of
driving trying to make it to park gates before they close at
sundown.   We had 360k of dirt roads to get to Sousousvlei,
and the roads ranged from good gravel where we could do 100 kph, all
the way down to really horrible washboard and lots of loose gravel,
where I had to slow down to 40 kph to keep our teeth in and the wheels
from coming off. The fun part of course is when it changes quickly from
good to bad. Somehow Chico pulled through with all 4 tires still
attached. And the dust... oy veh, the dust.  Such fine dust goes
anywhere and everywhere; after the first couple hours, we thought maybe
we should close the windows for dust (this Chico was so cheap there
wasn't even AC), then realized there was a plume of dust coming in the
air vents, dust was seeping in every crack in the boot (trunk), there
was dust coming out of the speakers on the doors!! 



But enough about transportation. We spent a night in the desert just
outside of the park gates for Naukluft (closes at Sunset, although not
locked, and we probably could have gone in without anyone
caring).  Amazingly quiet. Stunningly quiet. Almost too quiet for
people used to noise all the time, be it surf, wind, road, anything.
Orion was setting over the mountains and I got a few pictures. 
Next day we had a nice morning hike in the Naukluft. Was supposed to be
a loop, but sign-age was few and far between, so we ended up hiking up a
gorgeous valley for a while, which had, much to my amazement, a
running stream for the first 1/3 of it! The first running water we've
seen in Namibia since, uhhhhh, since the Kavongo river I think. 
The scenery was nice, but I wouldn't want to do their full 8 day loop
which is the highlight of the place.  Naturally we were running
late when we got back to the car, and 120k to go to Sousousvlei, where
we suspected the office issuing permits (required for entry in the
morning) would be open 8-5.  We got there at 4:51. Way to go
Chico!! 



A short description of Sousousvlei;  The name actually refers to
the big flat pan at the base of the dunes, NOT the actual dunes. 
There are a LOT of dunes south of Swakopmund for the next several
hundred kilometers of desert; there are no more towns along the coast
from Walvis Bay to Luderitz, a journey which can be done, in a hefty
4x4 in about 6 days.  You can get a great idea of this looking at
the satellite imagery on the travelpod map.  The dunes are most
spectacular in the hour after sunrise when the low angles put sharp
shadows on the dunes, and the soft light brings out the distinctive red
sand. Thus the gate for people staying at the park campground opens at
5:20, an hour before sunrise to allow people to drive in the 60k of
paved road (!) and then there's 5k of sand-pit 4x4 track at the end of
that which we knew we'd be walking to the final Sousousvlei
location.   On the way, there was a full moon setting, a nice
sunrise, and as we walked in, a herd of Oryx wandered by. The amazing
thing is that here, in the desert, there is still some life, somehow
things even grow partway up the dunes, where there seems there should
be no water, no nutrients, nothing but the baking sun of the
desert.  The dunes are indeed spectacular, with amazing colors,
textures, and hues. The sky attains a level of electric blue that has
to be experienced rather than seen.  



The park, like all Namibia parks, was poorly run; about all they've
figured out how to do is extract money from tourists, in return for
which, you're allowed in. That's it, no guidance, 3 road signs, which
were a bit ambiguous, no informative displays on the why and wherefore
of the dunes, nothing.  The flip side is that since there are no
rangers at all, there are no hindrances, so we were free to walk
straight up the biggest dune in the park, and slide down the other
side, which we did. It's almost a 300m climb, in soft sand, which is
quite fine, and amazingly uniform. Spectacular views from the top, and
then sliding down we discovered that the dune sings! Really!  It's
a lot like those chanting monks with the overtones, a deep base roar
-if you're sitting down you can feel the vibration, and some higher
notes, it's realllly cool. Sorry the camera doesn't have any video or
sound capability.  We dropped into Dead Vlei, which at that time
of day (11am) was rapidly turning into a reflector oven, temperatures
climbing into the high 30s, and this is the WINTER here, it would be 10
degrees warmer in the summer!



So that's our time in the dunes. We're done throwing money at rental
cars and Namibian parks now and it's time to get back on the bikes.
We're back in Swakopmund trying to figure out how to extract ourselves
from the desert. We'd like to get dropped halfway to Sousousvlei and
bike 200k of remote gravel road, which should be more scenic and remote
than just taking the tarmac route. However, the 180k of gravel to get
to this point has zero water, zero towns, zero anything, and we can't
carry that much water.  There's very little traffic going that
way, except tourists already packed into rental cars, so we need to
find a big over-lander truck with some space. But if we can't figure
that out in the next day, we'll just give up and go on the tarmac to
Windhoek, and from there by bus to Keetmanshoop, or even the border
with SA, time is running out!



ciao

M<

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Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

08 Sousousvlei Dunes	09 Sousouvlei dunes	10 Sousousvlei sand textures	11 Sousousvlei curvacious dune
12 Sousousvlei, the big dune	13 backbone ridge on sousousvlei dune	14 The view from on top	15 Dune sliding
16 Dune vegetation	17 Dead Vlei	18 Dead Veli trees	19 Dead Vlei trees
20 Geographic Milestone

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