Sossussvlei

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Scooted along the very bumpy road to dune 45 at 5.40 to climb it before sunrise. Tim had advised us all to make sure we had enough sunscreen, hat, etc. Well it was FREEZING-you could see your breath but no dune due to significant quantities of fog! We climbed up the ridge (not an easy task- the trick is to walk in someone else's footprints), the sun rose for 30 seconds before being sucked beneath the clouds at which point we promptly ran down the dune to the truck to attempt to warm up with tea and eggs, whilst Tim claimed it had never been that cold before. The fog gradually cleared to reveal a fantastic orange landscape.
We then had a fabulous tour with Frans from Soussess-on-foot through incredible landscape (including beautiful white Dead Vlei which looked like a relatively small area in the orange expanse until Frans pointed out the tiny ant-like people below!).
Frans is half bushman and knew a wealth of info about the area. In the barren-looking sand, he dug up spiders, beetles, and lizards (one of which he patted round the face with his finger to anger it making it bite his finger indefinitely-we were reliably informed that these lizards could also be worn as earrings using the same method).
Back at camp the sunset was absolutely beautiful, constantly changing from dusky pinks to purples. I was on dinner duty and had to keep interrupting Denford & Maria to come and look at the view as the truck blocked their view!

Exciting bird of the day- pale chanting goshawk

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