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Published: November 26th 2006
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The next day we had a long drive mostly on gravel roads - to the Namib Naukluft National Park, passing by the turning to Sossusvlei (which we would visit the following day). It was a long journey, and the beautiful road from Luderitz to Aus (the road that had been so beautiful on the journey down) was spoiled for David, who was doing the driving, because there were lots and lots of little birds on the road, who did not really seemed inclined to fly off until the very last moment, and so as David said it was ‘carnage’. He did keep tooting the horn and slowed down, but it was not nice! The mist caused by the Atlantic and desert air stopped literally in a line about 60k inland - it was a strange experience to have the heater on in the car and be driving through foggy weather one minute, then to have the air con on and be driving in bright warm sunshine the next! We filled up with petrol at Aus and then turned on to the C14 gravel road heading north. The scenery was great - more rocky peaks and a little undulating in places, and
some grasslands too. And the sky was so big - you could really see to the horizon all around - it was stunning. Again, we hardly saw any other traffic. The gravel roads we used on this day were of various qualities. Some were fine but there were others that were a bit ridged, or had a few ruts in them. I would say that these roads were the worst quality we used in the whole trip, but they were not pot-hole-type roads at all. The hire company at the airport had told us to be VERY careful on these roads because people often get lulled into a false sense of security because most of the gravel roads are so good and as a result go to fast round corners or down inclines. We did see a couple of crashed cars by the side of the road as evidence. It was a long drive of 7.5 hours. On some ‘main’ roads I had to get of the car to open a gate to allow us to go forwards. The route we did was the C14, D407, C27 and the C19. We were basically in the middle of nowhere for most
of the time - with no one around for miles - it was a really good feeling - we loved the space and the quiet and the feeling of being alone. We arrived at Namib Naukluft Lodge about 1530 and I had a gin and tonic and David had a beer in the nice bar to recover! I know I keep going on about the expanse and the landscape - but it was so lovely here too! From my bed I could lie down with my head on the pillow and see out to the savannah grasslands - what a great sight to wake up to! We did a sundowner drive and saw some meerkats at a distance, and some more oryx, the ever present springbok (we think there are probably more springbok in Namibia than there are people!!!). The view from the sundowner point was great - you know what I am going to say … expanse, wide open space, sky etc etc! The following day we were taken to Sossusvlei. There were just the two of us with our driver/guide, which was nice. He was from the Herero tribe and had worked at the lodge for about 6
years. He had two girlfriends, one at the lodge and one in Windhoek with who he had 4 children! AIDS is rife in Namibia. The trip was an early start - we left the lodge at 0520! We arrived at the entrance to Sossusvlei at sunrise (when the gates open) and drove the 60k to the main car park. From there the road turns to sand and you need a 4 wheel drive to get to the main dunes. The dunes are red and huge. Some people had stopped to climb one of the dunes (Dune 45 - so called because it is at the 45k point!). We got to Sossusvlei and our driver pointed us in the right direction to climb it, we could see others high up at the top. We started to climb, it was not that easy initially as the sand was pretty soft, but further up it was a little easier. However, it was getting high up and the dune was pretty steep on either side, and I don’t like heights - so unfortunately I got to a point where I could go no further. I know it would not have mattered if I had
fallen because the sand was so soft. And I probably know that I would not have fallen at all … but I was finding it very difficult to look around and enjoy the view, and it was difficult to move my legs too. So I called out to David who was in front of me a bit and said that I couldn’t go on. He said he would turn round too because he had not realised you could actually climb the dune and he wasn’t bothered one way or the other about climbing it. So I gradually turned round and tentatively retraced my steps, there got to a point where I was fine again - I guess there is something inside me that when I get to a certain height I freeze! We walked around taking photos of some of the lovely wind sculptured red sand dunes, beautiful shapes sweeping up and down, side to side, with the dark shadow on one side and the brilliant sunshine on the other. Our driver had prepared our breakfast - which we ate in the midst of the dunes chatting. It was all very pleasant indeed! On the drive back we saw a
black backed jackal - during our trip we saw quite a few of these. They are like little foxy dogs, strangely enough with a black back!!! We had a swim in the lovely pool when we got back. Swimming with THAT (you know what I mean!) view was pretty special! We also walked to the small water hole by a viewing hide, and we saw a lone male springbok drinking water, I could see the water going down inside his throat. He was very cautious and kept looking around a lot and very gingerly approached the waterhole before he actually put his head down to drink. We were very quiet, held our breath and didn’t move as we were pretty close - it was very exciting. We climbed the kopje at 1800 to watch the sun go down (it goes down around 1845 ish depending on where you are in the country). At the Namib Naukluft Lodge they had actually marked at path up the kopje - which was good. We sat half way up the kopje soaking in the view with the hot wind blowing across the plains. The sky stayed a deep redish purple for ages after the
sun had gone down. Magical.
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