Climbing Big Daddy - why pay for a gym?
by GillianMcLaughlin
Yes, strange as it may seem, I do have a sports tip for Namibia. On that morning we found ourselves ad Dead Vlei there was a cloud covering. It must have been about 1 km to cross the vlei to the dune at the end. All at once we noticed a group climbing on the dune, otherwise I'm not sure that we would have attempted it. We would certainly have thought twice if we'd realised we were looking at Big Daddy, at 1000 ft, one of the world's biggest dunes!Fortunately there was some cloud cover that morning and it was still early - not even 9 am. So with that bravado that comes fom ignorance, off we set. I can honestly say that in all my life I have never done anything so tough... give me the Himalayas any day, at least they don't move beneath your feet...What happens on the dunes is that for every 20cm you move up, you slide back 15 cm. All my hill-walking experience was useless here - no point...