Namibia. Part IV: Sossusvlei

Thanks to my husband for contributing some fantastic photos

Images of petrified trees casting spooky shadows over blood-stained sands are what came to mind when I first thought about visiting Namibia. I knew I saw these images of a park or desert on some TV show or magazine. After some research, I was excited to discover that I could see them in Sossusvlei and it wouldn’t be too much out of the way from all the other places we wanted to visit.

I had a very skew idea about traveling in Namibia. I thought that this park would be like many other nature parks I visited – accommodating to tourists. Or let me rather say that there would be more accommodation for tourists – period. Considering its remote location, I thought we had ample time to find a place to stay, even for 7 people. Luckily, having lived in China for some time, I learned to book trips well in advance just in case that this would be the year when everyone has similar holiday plans than you do. So, I started looking for places already in January for our visit at the end of September. Let’s just say it took some sweat and a few tears to accomplish this. Finding digs for our time in Sossusvlei took more time and effort than all of our other five accommodations combined. Everything was either booked solid or exorbitantly expensive. The closest and most affordable place we could find was a 40-min drive away – in the middle of nowhere. In “the middle of nowhere” in a vast country like Namibia many things can happen to you. More on that a bit later.

Here follows an abridged compilation of our two-day adventure in Sossusvlei because there are only so many adjectives I can use to describe a beautiful park filled with sand.

Sossuvlei

Namib Naukluft Park Map

Sossus-what? There are so many interpretations and translations of what “Sossus” means, luckily, they all agree on the language origin: Nama. It is also known as the Khoekhoe language or Hottentot. Nama is the most widespread of non-Bantu languages in southern Africa that contain "click" sounds. It is also a national language of Namibia. Translations of "Sossus" range from “dead-end”, "place of no return" to “a gathering place of water”. “Vlei” is an Afrikaans word that means "marsh", I guess we can roughly translate it to “dead-end marsh where there’s water and you’ll quite possibly never leave again”. Sossusvlei is a salt and clay pan that was created by the Tsauchab river that flows through the Sesriem Canyon roughly every decade. Even during very wet times, the water never reaches the Atlantic Ocean but drains away from the red dunes so I wouldn’t say too much water gathers here, to be honest.

Technically Sossusvlei belongs to a much larger nature reserve known as The Namib-Naukluft National Park. A big chunk of the Namib Desert, as well as the Naukluft mountain range, are found within this park including the gorgeous Sossusvlei. In total, The Namib-Naukluft Park is approximately 49,768 km2 (19,216 sq mi) and carries the prestige title of being the fourth largest game park in the world. The largest is also in Namibia, the Mudumu National Park at an impressive 85,000 km2 (32,818 sq mi).

Sesriem Canyon

We decided to divide our visit into 2 days. On the first day, we wanted to hike and get lost in the Sesriem Canyon and see the ancient Elim Dune. Second, we wanted to kick up as many dust clouds as possible while exploring the rest of the area.

A natural canyon from local sedimentary rock, the Sesriem Canyon, stretches about a kilometer (0.6 miles) and descends down to 30 meters (100 feet). It got its names from settlers who trekked from South Africa up to Namibia in search of greener pastures. The name “Sesriem” translates from Afrikaans to “six belts. They named it that way because they had to attach six leather belts (made from local Oryxes) in order to lower buckets into the canyon to gather water. A fun fact about the canyon is that it has a section that permanently contains water throughout the year – in such a dry place as the world’s oldest desert that’s quite a feat!

We also wanted to pay the Elim Dune a visit because she’s the most photographed attraction in the whole park and we wanted to see what the fuss was about. Now she was a real lady in every sense of the word: sprawled out in front of a dazzling landscape, isolated from the other dunes and on her own stage, curvaceous, approachable but feisty as she glistens in the sun while parading her spectacular shades of green, brown, olive, and red.

The next day we ventured deeper into Sossusvlei. We were en route an hour or so before sunrise when we spotted a pair of yellow dots reflecting back at us. Suddenly that single pair multiplied to four pairs and once we came to a screeching halt, we saw a clan of hyenas staring confoundedly at us. Neither of us expected to stumble across the other. They parted, making way for us to pass when suddenly I spotted another hyena rushing up from behind us. Everything that followed happened quite fast. They circled and chased us down the dusty road. Luckily our engine was considerably faster than their lop-sided legs and the chase didn’t last long. My friend and I speculated later that we couldn’t decide if they happened to come across us by accident and then rapidly turned the situation into a masterful combative attack or if they saw us coming and staged the blockade to distract us while their comrade snuck up from behind to ambush us. Apart from being terribly impressed by the smarts involved in their ploy, we were also amazed by the fact that they didn’t care to distinguish between a gazelle and a 2 500kg (5 518 pounds) truck - they are that brazen and self-confident. The amount of respect for their courageous attempt almost completely clouded the heart-trashing thrill they gave us.

Once the sun came up and we were confident that the death pack was gone, we entered the park. It is a one road in and one road out -kind of place. You can drive yourself, but unless you want to guarantee you spend most of your time shoveling your tires free from sand in the blistering sun, you can also opt for a jeep taxi. They pretty much work like hop on hop off buses and carry you from attraction to attraction.

Now close your eyes and images sand dunes. Hundreds of them scattered around and gleaming red under the beautiful but fierce African sun. Suddenly you see a black and white blur behind one dune and a moment later a large and magnificent Oryx creeps from behind a sand heap and leisurely strolls until it disappears again behind another dune. Now turn around and gaze into the distance. On the horizon, you see a greyish fleck covered in brown dots. Perhaps it’s a mirage? As you walk closer you see it’s a clay pan and those dark dots are stunning trees with crooked branches that cast eerie shadows on the pale surface. As you step closer you realize that you’re holding your breath. It’s beautiful here. It’s serene and somewhat uncanny almost like time stands still here. After having crossed the pan for a short while, you stop and gaze up and around you. You have a 360-degree view of towering red dunes circling around you and the white pan, brown trees, red dunes, and yellow sun melt together to create a symphony of color. You are overwhelmed by this place, by its wild grandeur. That’s what you can expect when visiting Sossusvlei.

The dunes I spoke about are what’s known as “star dunes”. This means they’re characterized as pyramidal hills with sloping faces on multiple arms that emit from the dune’s central peak. Another reason they are called “star dunes” is due to the winds that blow from all angles causing the sides of the dunes to form a star shape. Researcher claim that the star dunes migrate up to 10 meters per year.

Hugging, what’s perhaps known as Sossusvlei's most beautiful attraction, Deadvlei (the graveyard of creepy trees), is the master of dunes, comically known as “Big Daddy”. This dune is somewhat of a celebrity in Sosussvlei because it is one of the tallest in the area, towering at a whopping 325 meters (1,066 feet). It’s also been around for quite a while –five million years to be precise.

Perhaps the most known dune in the park is Dune 45. It’s appropriately called so because it lies 45 km (27.9617 miles) past the settlement and gate to the park, Sesriem. The dune is only 80 meters high but you can almost always spot climbers scrambling their way to the top of the 5 million-year-old beauty. Dune 45 is also the most accessible dune as it’s quite close to the only road running through the park, unlike the others where a slight trek is involved.

The entire park is quite small but mesmerizing. You’d think that being surrounded by sand all day can’t possibly be that much fun but there’s something different about Sossusvlei. Perhaps it’s the abnormal color of the sand, the stunning Oryxes and other wildlife that will randomly pop up without notice, perhaps it’s the unnerving trees and the clay pans or perhaps it’s all of the above and also the fact that this place is ancient and untouched. The best way to describe it I guess is, it's like trotting around in a sandbox filled with dinosaurs - it's not something you get to do every day.