The Namib Desert, Namibia, 5 and 6 September, 2012

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The Namib Desert, 5 and 6 September

After leaving Swakopmund, we drove through a rocky desert that extends all the way from Sossusvlei to the Swakop river. This area is traversed by the Tropic of Capricorn where we stopped for the obligatory photo. This area is mostly flat, although some scenic canyons and elevations are found in some areas, for example in the Moon Valley system. While most of the soil is rocky, sand dunes are still occasionally found in this region; for example, sand dunes occupy much of the coastline between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund. The road was pretty good considering it was unsealed. After an hour of driving, we stopped at a place called Solitaire which is famous for some amazing pastries. We were all looking forward to sampling some. Tom had an apple pie and I had a big, big, big muffin which had slabs of chocolate through it. I only got through 1/3 of it so saved the rest ‘till later.

The scenery was beautiful along the way with the flat desert for about 1/2 km each side of the road before rising into the mountain range on each side of the road. I hope the photos give you a bit of an idea of our views. Today we were going to see some of the wonderful featured of this Desert.

The Namib is a coastal desert in southern Africa. The name Namib is of Nama origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than 2,000 kilometres along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namibia and South Africa, extending southward from the Carunjamba River in Angola, through Namibia and to the Olifants River in Western Cape, South Africa. From the Atlantic coast eastward, the Namib gradually ascends in elevation, reaching up to 200 kilometres inland to the foot of the Great Escarpment. Annual rainfall ranges from 2 millimetres in the most arid regions to 200 millimetres at the escarpment, making the Namib the only true desert in southern Africa. Their last rain was in February and March this year so the desert was unusually covered with grasses which were now, almost white. Having endured arid or semi-arid conditions for roughly 80–55 million years, the Namib is also the oldest desert in the world.

The desert geology consists of sand seas near the coast, while gravel plains and scattered mountain outcrops occured further inland. The sand dunes, some of which are 300 metres high and span 32 kilometres long, are the second largest in the world after the Badain Jaran Desert dunes in China. Temperatures along the coast are stable and generally range between 9–20°C annually, being around 6 to 18°C while we were in the Desert while temperatures further inland are variable—summer daytime temperatures can exceed 45 °C while nights can be freezing. In the mornings we experienced the wind-chill factor and soon as the sun set, it was cold.

Fog that originate offshore from the collision of the cold Benuela Current and warm air from the Hadley Cell create a fog belt that we saw every morning on the coast. Coastal regions can experience more than 180 days of thick fog a year. While this has proved a major hazard to ships—more than a thousand wrecks litter the Skeleton Coast—it is a vital source of moisture for desert life.

The Namib desert is an important location for the mining of tungsten, salt, uranium and diamonds. The diamonds, which are alluvial, are found in beds of gravel.

I was fascinated over the Welwitschia plant which grows in the Namib Desert. It is considered a living fossil, a shrub-like plant that grows two long strap-shaped leaves continuously throughout its lifetime. These leaves may be several meters long, gnarled and twisted from the desert winds. The taproot of the plant develops into a flat, concave disc in age. Welwitschia is notable for its survival in the extremely arid conditions in the Namib, mostly deriving moisture from the coastal sea fogs. An area where Welwitschias are a common sight is found in the surroundings of the Moon Valley, including the eponymous Welwitschia Plains. They are the longest-lived leaves of any member of the plant kingdom. It is estimated that the largest of these plants are about 2,500 years old

The Namib-Naukluft National Park, which extends over a large part of the Namib Desert, is the largest game reserve in Africa and one of the largest of the world. While most of the park is hardly accessible, several well-known visitor attractions are found in the desert. The prominent attraction is the famous Sossusvlei area, where we stayed for one night, where high orange sand dunes surround vivid white salt pans, creating a fascinating landscape. We went to see these on 5 September to see the sunset over the desert.

We got to our camp site, set up our tents and then drove to see Deadvlei and Hiddenvlei which are caused by the low areas being old lakes, forming and hard rock cover surrounded by massive sand dunes. On the way we stopped at the Sessriem Canyon which is only 1 km long and not very deep. I and one other member of our group decided to walk right around the canyon which was some extra exercise which I was feeling I needed.

12 of us hired a local who was an absolute comedian, going the wrong way and taking his hands off the steering wheel when the vehicle was going over big bumps (as if he was on a rollercoaster), and wearing a knitted hat that came from Peru. He was a real character.

The scenery was magical. This was the Sossusvlei area. We climbed 2 large sand dunes to see the views of these dead lakes.

After driving back to the truck where the rest of the group were, we then drove to Dune 45 for sunset. The small problem was that we had arrived at 4.30pm and the sun wasn’t going to set until 6.45pm. Despite this, we climbed up this very large dune, which was about 200-300 metres. It was hard going but I found if I stepped in the footprint of the person who was in front of me, it was easier. We climbed along the wind-ridge of the dune. When we got to the top of one of the peaks, and Peter from Copenhagen and I decided to go to the next peak which was a lot higher. We had plenty of time to do this!! Our tour leader said it would take 45 minutes but it only took even the slowest person, 20 minutes. The 2^nd peak took Peter and me about 30 minutes.

So there we were at 5.15pm waiting for the sun to set over the Namib Desert – in 1 ½ hours!!. As we were higher, there was a little more wind which meant more sand-blasting of our legs etc. Despite this, we all stuck it out and the sunset was beautiful. How the colours of the desert changed during sunset, was amazing. We then ran down the side of the dune. That was fantastic fun.

Getting back to camp, we had a luke warm shower and a ton of sand fell out of my clothes.

While driving around the Namib Desert we saw quite a few gemsboks (Oryx gazella) which are the biggest antelopes found in the Namib. We saw quite a few big, black beetles on the top of the sand dunes, which buried themselves; we saw lizards and heard the barking skinks again.

We also saw quite a few Camel Thorn Tree (Acacia eriolaba) in this Sossusvlei region, with their half-moon shaped seed pods, all of which made lovely contrast for great photography.

The next morning on 6^th September, we left our camp site at 7.45am after having to wait for the gate to open, 45 minutes after we arrived at the gate from 7.00am. Someone got their times wrong!! The road we then travelled on was unsealed but not too bad. We were on our way down to Fish River Canyon for the night – and 3 days before we meet up with my sister Sheryl – looking forward to that.

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