Dunes

Now we were truly heading deep inland, deep inside what Nambia has to offer and we were on our way to the famous dunes area of Namibia called Sossusvlei.

Most people must have seen the famous images of the red dunes with the white sand on the ground and the contrast of the dark, black, dead trees. This is Deadvlei and arguably for most the highlight of the area.

The drive from Namtib to Sossusvlei was EPIC!!! I have never experienced the changes in scenery that we experienced that day, from the beautiful rolling and sandy hills into rugged and rocky terrain before we ’descended’ into the Sossusvleu or Sesriem area. Amazing!

Zev fells alseep on the way in and missed the wild Zebras, a beautiful small herd on top of ridge before we saw the next group in the valley below. EPIC again!

We were happy that our friends from Ultimate Routes had booked a few nights for us in a lodge, just outside the gate of the national park, so we had a proper bed and chance to get our laundry done properly too!!

The lodge was great and we enjoyed the breakfast and dinner settings too, not having to cook and try Gemsbok, Kudu and all other wild meats was nice,

The corrugations just outside the park and on the way to the Canyon were less nice as was the same for the amount of ’rooftop tent tourists’ too.

Mostly European tourists, these Hi-Lux driving, who drive 4000 kilometers in 11 days to see all the ’sights’ of Namibia and beyond were less nice, most of them were stuck up and not very social, but the National Parks do like them, as ’International’ guest pay twice what Southern Africans do in most place and THREE times was the ’locals’ do….

Gales!

From Luderitz we headed back the same way we came, back towards Aus and then turning off shortly after Aus, onto our first gravel since crossing the border when we first hit gravel. 

The morning was a little misty but we had spend some amazing days on the sea with great sunny weather, stuff you can normally only dream off on the Atlantic coast of Namibia.

Now we did get a little drizzle and had to use our wipers once or twice.

We went past Aus and turned left onto a gravel road, nice and wide only to be stuck behind a Police ‘bakkie’ who clearly was getting driving lessons from his colleague and we past them, giving them a wide berth.

We drove through beautiful country side with flowing hills and hit a bit of sand from time to time too, we were on our way to Namtib Bioreserve.

Along the way we passed some abandoned farms but also some what seemed profitable ones, some growing Dades and other still growing fruit inland too, so there must have been a lot of water around.

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We saw the odd Jackal and when we made the turn into the Namtib Bioreserve we were greeted by some Gemsbok and Springbok too. It was nice to see animals again after having passed many pastures with fences, which means animals cannot roam easily. Farm animal or wild…

The 7 orso kilometers from the main road to the lodge and campsite were hell!!

We hadn’t had any real corrugations yet but this made us cry, we had some in Kgalagadi ofcourse, but not on a main road let alone a private one like this. We could hardly go 5kph per hour without shaking to bits and these few kilometers took ages!!

We pulled up outside the main lodge building, which looked great, and were met by 3 pregnant cows, which ofcourse had a hard time to move out of our way.

The lodge and campsite looked great and there was choice of campsite for us, super! Nice ablutions and beautiful landscapes, camping just underneath the rocky outcrops of the Namtib. More campers joined us so the 5 spots were quickly filled.

That night was a night of hell, orso it seemed, the wind picked up speed during the night and around midnight it was not only blowing along the mountains but also blowing down from the mountains, and all crash landing on top of us.

The truck shook and shook as the windblows increased and around midnight we went as far as to turn the truck, having it face the wind more head on instead of sideways.

The poor Germans that put up their tent earlier that night went to bed in their car, we heard the next day.

The next morning all was fine ofcourse and we spend the day looking for animals, big and small, prepping our Braai and playing ‘hamertje tik’ with Zev.

That evening the same occurred as the previous night and we took the same action again, driving the truck around the large tree in the middle of the campsite and having it face the winds more head on.

The campsite was great but due to the winds, we were more then happy to leave and continue our journey!

Heading west!


From Aus we drove through beautiful flowing hills with small cattle farms left and right of the road. Shortly after leaving Aus we passed the entry to the national park that ‘houses’ the wild horses. There weren’t many people on the road but the ones that were, all seemed to turn off to see the horses. From afar it looked like all the horses had congregated around a building which looked like stables so we continued on our merry way.

Towards the dunes and Luderitz!

Signs of getting close to Luderitz were clear, more traffic, including bulldozers and dunes! Beautiful flowing dunes that had covered the road from time to time but also covered the rail road tracks on the side of the road. The bulldozers were clearing this and actually moving mountains, of sand. 

A few kilometers from Luderitz the ‘sperrgebiet’ starts and this is also the paid entry to the Kolmanskop village. An old settlement that was now partially covered in sand and a major tourist spot in this desolate area.

Beside the village is the entry to the ‘sperrgebiet’, a huge area, all the way from the border of South Africa to here which holds diamonds, on the surface! So no entry for anybody but the certified and verified people. 

We made the usual touristy pictures in Kolmanskop and went on our merry way, only a few kilometers to the supermarket in Luderitz and our campsite at ‘Shark Island’.

The campsite is in a way the most beautiful thing in the world, sitting on a rocky outcrop with camping sites dotted around it. The ablutions are shared but recently renewed and clean and there was electricity on some sites too. 

We found a great spotted and enjoyed tje beautiful weather while looking for sea shells and wondering if we saw a dolphin or shark fin sticking out of the water from time to time.

Our second day was just as beautiful and we went with the truck across the bay to look at the landscape and to try and spot a brown hyena.

We drove some great sandy off-road tracks and came across a group of 4 cars that we had spotted in Ai-Ais but also in Aus too. 

No brown hyenas for us in real life but we did see many signs and tracks of the animals, what a strange and wonderful feeling, to know that hyenas are around but out of sight.