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| Desert and dunes tips and photos posted by real travelers and Namibia locals. • 88 Photos
• 74 Reviews
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 | Namibia Desert and dunes Reviews | 1 - 10 of 74 |  |
While staying at the Kulala Desert Lodge we arranged to visit Sossusvlei with one of their guides, Francis. He was an excellent guide and made sure we got to the best photo stops ahead of the tour groups (although that did mean a very early start to the day, of course!)
The highlight was visiting Dead Vlei. We parked the jeep and walked across several dunes. As we came over the top of the last, Dead Vlei was spread before us. It's an amazing sight and if you're a photographer you'll love it - the contrast betwen the white dried-up clay, stark black trees and surrounding red dunes is out of this world! See my travelogue for more images. Directions: If you take the tour from Kulala you can arrive especially early because they have their own entrance to the National Park, but all the lodges and camps in the area will have similar ones on offer.Website: http://www.wilderness-safaris.com
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Soussouvlei is a really nice place to go, %c
BUT: be warned. The road that goes in (and out, since it is only one) is 67 km long, the last 5 km are only permitted if you have a 4WD (and believe it, you will need it, since it is only sand there).
The road was tarred 1 year ago,when we were there(2003), but you wouldn't believe it. It has so many big potholes, that a normal gravel-road like elsewhere in Namibia would be better. The only thing what it improves is, that there isn't that much dust from the cars anymore.
If you go into this dead-end street and you are 2 cars: leave one outside, you must come back the same road anyway...
The big dunes begin after about 30 km.
Dune number 45, which is famous because its closest to the street can be climbed: just try it!
If you have a 4WD do the last 5 km, it is also quite fun driving.
In the Dead Vlei (at the end) you should go and walk a little (1km to, 1km back). Leave a Comment
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From the Buellsport Guest Farm you can make some very nice walking-trips through the surroundings: Namib Naukluft park.
One of them is the walk through the Quivertree gorge.
By car you are being driven (via a viewpoint) to the beginning of the trail.
You descent into the gorge, you see wild zebras, quivertrees, dassies, antelopes and you find water on the ground. (very rare in this dry surrounding).
The water is so clear you can drink it or bath in it like in a natural bath-tube.
Further down the gorge you get picked up again and driven back.
Start: 7.30 am.
Back around 2 p.m. (depends how fast you walk)
Time to walk: 1.5-3.5 hours
Bring: enough water, good shoes. Leave a Comment
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Namib is one of the oldest deserts in the world. The name means vast, and is really a vast park of orange sand. Is one of the largest conservation area of the world. The sand was swept to Sossusvley from Kalahari Desert by the Orange River.
The landscape are really incredible beautiful. One of the most beautiful I have ever seen? Perhaps.
I spent 3 days here. One of the mornings I took a little plain and flight all over this red world. It was really great. Leave a Comment
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After climbing Dune 45 we had breakfast and went to Dead Vlei. It was really cold, very cold, even after walking for long time.
It was a long way to reach the Dead Vlei, over 5 km. We found gemsbok in our way. A white dry lake under our feet, and some more dunes to climb, but little ones. At last you reach where dead trees are, like burn ones, and where the bigest dune in the world is, "bigone".
The way back can be easyer cause you can take a shuttle to the parking. Follow the people to find the shuttle, is over 1 Km from the Dead Vlei.
Of course you must take water, is a long way. And if you want ... do it as I did, with bared feet, it was great. Leave a Comment
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I went to Elim Dune over 5 pm to see the sunset. Everybody comes here to see the sunset cause is the nearest sand dune to Sesriem, about 5 km from it. It was my first contact with these incredible beautiful read dunes.
At the sand only big ants and desert beetles. The first steps to climb the dune are really hard cause your legs will be buried in the sand, try to find the better way to climb it. Some do follow others step, but I did search another way … that was much easier. After you must get down … but that is great fun, just run down.
It is worth the effort cause you will have a wonderful view from the top. Naukluft Mountains looks violet, the land is yellow and the dunes oranges and red, with some green spots … just a beautiful pallet of colours.
Take of your shoes and feel that sand in your bare feet.
It wasn't hot, but you must bring with you water, and have your mouth close ... you will finish with red sand everywhere. Leave a Comment Address: Sesriem
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OK I have to be honest – I didn’t climb Dune 45, but Chris did and told me all about it, so I figure I know enough to describe it here! Basically it’s a huge pile of sand and you climb up it – and if you think that sounds easy you’ve obviously never walked on even a small seaside dune. For every step you take forwards you slip almost the same amount backwards, which means it takes a very long time and a lot of effort to get to the top. And this is no ordinary dune – it’s one of the largest in the Namib Desert, at over 150 metres high. From the top (apparently) you get a great view of red sand in waves of dunes on all sides.
If you blow up my photo and peer at it carefully, Chris is the small figure just to the right of the dark shaded area at the top of the dune!
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Little canyon very near Sesriem's campsite. Its a canyon of great beauty that is worth the visit indeed. Of about 30 meters in deep, I did saw a little pool inside, but I have read that in rain season the canyon gets fill of water "That must be incredible to see"
It is not easy to see cause its appear suddenly.
The day I took a plain to flight over Namib Desert I saw it from the sky, and it was much longer that I imagne from the floor. Leave a Comment Address: Sesriem
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Dune 45 is over 170 metres above the valley floor, next to the road. Not the highest but easy to climb to.
It was 5 am when you get up at Sesriem Camp to go to Dune 45 to see the sunrise. All the groups of the camp where going to do the same, so at that time there was traffic jam at the middle of the desert :)
We arrive to the dune, it was very cold, but with the first steps the cold disappeared. As the day before I decided to take another way to climb the dune, but this time I took the wrong and more difficult way. My legs buried in the sand in every step but at last I get to the top and share with the others the sunrise.
I was a wonderful experience. After run down over that red sand.
After climbing some groups have champagne at the edge of the dune, I only had a normal breakfast :) Leave a Comment
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Deserts are fascinating places - they are beautiful in their simplicity and in their extreme; but they are also interesting places in ecological terms. The Namib is one of the driest places on earth with basically very little or no rainfall. How can anything possibly survive here? The answer lies within the shores of Namibia, reached by the cold Benguela current all the way from the Antarctic. The cold currents cool the air that condenses into fog as it meets the warmer desert air. The prevailing winds push the moist fog inland, into the desert. Many years of adaptation have allowed plants, to absorb this fog - allowing other creatures to colonise even such a hostile environment. Geckos scramble around foraging for particles of dead matter, snake predate on whatever they may find, gemsbok can survive without water. Animals such as foxes, gerbils and elephants will eat desert melons - a valuable source of water. Beetles will climb on the dunes in the morning, stand on their heads with their backs facing the wind and let the water condense and trickle down their backs and into their mouths. The dunes seem to be alive, in fact they shift at a rate of about 20 cm a year - the desert is indeed ever-changing. The Namib is truly a natural wonder, for its incredible scenic beauty and the story it tells about how nature always finds a way.
The Namib is probably the oldest desert on earth, the other contender being the Atacama in Chile. The Namib's age has given time for the different forms of life to adapt to it.
The Namib desert is spread across the western part of Namibia, with parts of it protected by natural parks and mining areas. The Namib-Naukluft, Skeleton Coast and West Coast Recreational area are all in the Namib.
One can find dune deserts, mountains and gravel plains - so the Namib is not simply just a sea of sand, it is indeed a varied and interesting extreme world of its own.
For more info of places in the Namib refer to my Namib Naukluft pages. Leave a Comment
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