Sossusvlei, Namibia
June 5, 2024
Some five million years ago, sand from the Kalahari was swept down the Orange river and deposited along the western coast of what is now Namibia. Rising more than three hundred meters above the valley floor, the dunes glow at sunrise and sunset. The shadows cut sharp lines making them a photographer’s dream.
We set out early from camp and drove along the tarmac road. Tarmac! What a shock after the endless jolting on gravel the day before! On either side are dunes, some already showing the footprints along the ridge to the top. Imaginatively named Dune 40 and Dune 45 already had gawkers at their feet. And there! A first dead tree. An intro to the quintessential photo of the Namib desert. We came to the parking lot from which shuttles depart for the big-name dunes, the road here on out being deep sand that even most land rovers and jeeps dare not try. It was a circus! Amid all this vast emptiness, here is a crowd milling around waiting on a ride. A tractor hauling a carriage heaved and swayed and grunted its way to the beginning of Deadvlei and the trek up the dune called Big Daddy.
I simply followed the crowds headed to Deadvlei. There! In the distance are the dead trees set amid a bowl of deep red sand. Some nine hundred years ago when this valley was suddenly cut off from water sources, it dried so quickly that these trees did not even have time to decompose.
The dry desert air preserved them in situ through the eons. Now they look like so many drowning hands reaching futilely skyward with gnarled fingers. The red of the sand, the blue of the sky and the parched limbs strike a strangely artistic note.
All around are towering dunes, their shapes seem sculpted with a scalpel. The climbers look like tiny pinpricks atop the ridgeline. Sossusvlei is a kilometer or so further west with yet more dunes. I see a dust devil careening its way past and a few birds swoop high above.
Angie and I loiter until the evening sun paints its magic as well. The browns and ochres and a deep russet come alive as the rays sweep down the valley. ‘Tis a magic place with its magic colors.
ITCHY FEET TRAVELS 