As we coasted back down into the Namib desert to the Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) campsite at Sesriem, we didn’t have high expectations. NWR has a somewhat spotty track record on travel forums, and we’d just come from NWR-managed Duwisib Castle, still closed “due to COVID” and the onsite caretaker (who apparently sometimes would lets people in) was off in another city an hour’s drive away. But when we arrived at the campsite we were very pleasantly surprised. Our reservation was in the computer, and our campsite had power, water nearby, and a shade tree in the middle of the site. (Although the sand in the campground was deep enough to require 4×4 mode to get into the site.) Even a swimming pool on the grounds!
We’d chosen the NWR Sesriem campsite because it was “inside the gate”, permitting an hour’s head start on the pre-sunrise dash to Dune 45 or Sossusvlei, the huge pan surrounded by dunes. Even with the head start, due to the hour-long drive it was necessary to make a choice: either climb Dune 45 in the dark in time for sunrise, or get all the way to the end of the road and hike in to Deadvlei before the arrival of hundreds of fellow tourists. With an afternoon high of 43 degrees, we opted for beating the heat (and crowds) by going to Deadvlei first.
Accordingly, at 5:50 the next morning we were at the gate and off down the paved road to the 2×4 parking lot. We had a quick breakfast while watching the sun rise over the red dunes, deflated the tires to sand-driving pressure, and took off through the drifts for the last 5 km of 4×4 only track. Thanks to experience in driving in snow at home (oddly similar to driving in sand), and as well in deserts such as Oman’s Sharqiya Sands, we had no trouble making our way to the 4×4 parking lot.
We didn’t bother checking out Sossusvlei, just did the 20 or 30 minute hike to Deadvlei. While somewhat smaller than we expected, Deadvlei certainly did live up to its reputation as a photographer’s dream. The palette of red dunes, brilliant blue sky, black trees, and white pan was stark and compelling, and the shadow of the dune “Big Daddy” slowly receding as the sun finally rose over the surrounding dunes made for great photos. We hiked back to our truck as the crowds began to arrive and before it got too hot (although it was well into the 30s shortly after 10:00 am) in order to retrace our path back to the campsite. Still no desire to hike Dune 45, given the heat of the day!
We spent the afternoon at the pool, trying to sleep in a tent at sauna-like temperatures, and hanging about the shaded campers’ lounge area. When it cooled off (i.e. dropped below 40!) we gassed up the truck and went out to visit Sesriem Canyon. Just a few cups of water a 100 feet or more down, and a few baboons watching the tourists. We think that they were too hot to bother anybody!
Just to clear up a couple of misconceptions about Deadvlei:
- Deadvlei and the Sossusvlei area are NOT surrounded by the “highest dunes on earth” as many guides, blogs, and even a few guidebooks claim. The tallest dune in the area is barely one-quarter the height of the tallest dune in the world (far off in Argentina) and no dune in the Sossusvlei area even cracks the Top 10. There is one dune, Dune 7, in the Namib Sand Sea that comes in at #7 in the world, but it’s 200 km away and 50 m taller than Big Daddy.
- The trees in Deadvlei are not petrified, just dead and completely dried out; burnt black by 900 years of unrelenting sun.
See images from the day on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/100countries/albums/72177720315820840/
