Blogs from Sossusvlei, Namibia, Africa - page 7

"Dune, Arrakis, Desert Planet..." Another early start for us as we get up before sunrise to head for the dune in Deadvlei (to quote one our readers 'the sodding middle of sod all'). A whole bunch of us jump in the 4x4 to being the 65km journey into the valley of the dunes. Our first stop is the well-known Dune 45 (45km from the entrance) which is one of the few dunes that you are allowed to climb and the most accessible. We climb up the dune ridge, thankfully made easier by following other's footsteps and the view across the valley, which is at a point where the dual dune ridges have yet to converge, expands. As we progress upwards Sue suffers from an attack of vertigo. Comments like 'come on Sue, you'd ski down that, ... read more

We saw the Namibian Desert. Our first stop was at Dune 45, which is located on Sossusvlei Road. The Dune is 150m tall, and is 45m from Sesriem and Sossusvlei. Again the walk up the dune was painful. The wind was blowing so hard that the people’s tracks in front of me were covered quickly. This is really too bad because walking in other people’s tracks make the hike up a very tall sand dune a lot easier. The view from the top was okay; the best part is that I can say that I climbed one of the oldest sand dunes in the world. The really fun part was running down the back side of the dune. Sylvia and I started running down at the same time, she was a few feet in front of ... read more

Es gibt Orte, die einen verzaubern, die einen dazu anregen, ueber sein Leben nachzudenken. Es gibt Orte, die suechtig machen, Orte die man eigentlich ueberhaupt nicht beschreiben kann, weil sie so, wie sie sind, perfekt sind. Einen solchen Ort haben wir gefunden. Ich war nun zum 2. Mal in meinem Leben in dieser Region, und es ging mir beide Male gleich. Es ist ein Ort, der mich nie wieder loslassen wird: die Namib Desert. Aber mal der Reihe nach. Mit unserem Volksie fuhren wir erst einmal direkt in den Sueden Namibias. Der erste Tag war eher nur Kilometerfressen, um die Distanz einmal hinter uns zu bringen. Wir landeten dann in Keetmanshop auf einem skurrilen Campingplatz mitten in dem beruehmten Koecherwald. Weiter ging es von dort ins Fish River Canyon, dem 2. groessten Canyon der Welt. Von ... read more

Day 9 (Wednesday 29-Apr-09, JRJ) Up at 5am to go on a sunrise walk at Fish River Canyon as we missed the sunset walk last night due to timing issues. Wasn't too bad having to get up so early, and we were glad of a nice walk in preparation for the 10 hour driving day. Fish River Canyon is the second largest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon, but it doesn't seem as spectacular for some reason. After walk, had brekkie and off we went. Stopped at a small town called Bethanie for a quick toilet break and bought some Biltong (sun dried strips of meat). I had chilli bites of wildbiltong (a mix of Kudu and Oryx antelopes) and Nat had Beesbiltong (beef). On the way, we saw a few herds of Springbok, ... read more

I was playing with phone and found these templates. Maria wanted to be a superhero. Here is what we came up with.... read more