Another early start to get to the park gate at sunrise (when they opened) so that we could beat the heat and still have morning lighting and shadows on the dunes for pictures and hiking. It was a rare paved road through the park but the last 5km required four wheel drive through deep sand.

Situated in the largest conservation area in Africa (the Namib-Naukluft National Park), Sossusvlei is possibly Namibia’s most spectacular and best-known attraction. Characterised by the large red dunes that surround it, Sossusvlei is a large, white, salt and clay pan. The dunes in this area are some of the highest in the world, reaching almost 400 meters. The dunes  were created by sand carried by the wind from the coast of Namibia.  The sand here is 5 million years old and is red in colour due to its iron oxide content.  As the lighting changes with the time of day, so does the appearance of the dunes’ characteristic colour, allowing for interesting photographs at any time. The wind in the Sossusvlei area blows from all directions, which means that the type of the dunes here are known as “star dunes”.  This is because the winds cause the sand to form a star shape with multiple arms.

From the parking lot we hiked up the ridge of a dune over looking the Deadvlei. From the top we had stunning views and then took off our shoes and clambered down the leeward side of the dune into the Deadvlei. Due to the recent rain and still being shaded the sand was cool under our bare feet.

We walked back through the Deadvlei

to our trucks and drove another 1 km to Sossusvlei. Sossusvlei literally translates to “dead-end marsh”, as it is the place where the dunes come together preventing the Tsauchab River to flow any further, some 60km east of the Atlantic Ocean.  However, due to the dry conditions in the Namib Desert the River seldom flows this far and the pan remains bone-dry most years.  During an exceptional rainy season the Tsauchab fills the pans.

Despite the harsh desert conditions in the area, one can find a wide variety of plants and animals that have adapted to survive.

Now it was starting to get hot so we headed back to our camp and had a picnic lunch and watched as a storm gathered around us.

It seemed to come from all directions and when it hit the skies opened with very impressive rain and an amazing thunderstorm. We all scrambled to our tents and tried to have naps while thunder rolled through the skies above us and rain flooded into our tents. Can’t remember a more impressive storm. Later that afternoon we went for a sundowner drive and again had a magnificant sunset while enjoying our sundowners.

Following sunset we were driven back to the Lodge for another outdoor dinner.