Leaving Fish River Canyon we spend a day on dusty gravel roads. As we make our way north we’ve gone from the flat arid land of the canyon rim and drive into a valley with rugged mountains on one side and soaring sand dunes on the other. This is the start of the great Namib Desert, the oldest desert in the world, which is home to the largest and highest sand dunes globally. These dunes are enormous, it looks like a mountain range built out of sand. They are steep, rust colored, and the rim edge of each dune curves in a snake like shape. I’m in awe of the natural beauty and am becoming a bigger fan of Namibia as I see the diverse change.
We set-out early before the sun rises climbing Dune 45, one of the largest and most famous dunes in the world. This is the desert and while it’s dark, it’s cold. That’s made up for as we trudge up the dune edge, cold sand oozing in my sandals squishing between my toes, my heart beat rises exerting myself to make the next step sand sliding away making it difficult to get a firm foothold. Tired as we crest the peak of this mountain of powdery sand the horizon glows orange behind a range of mountain sized dunes. As the sun breaks the horizon its beams pound us in the face, the temperature quickly rises as the rusty sandy sheen almost glows.
Leaving Dune 45, we make our way to Deadvlei. It’s a salt flat where a river once flowed in a valley between several large sand dunes. The ground is packed hard and there are numerous dead 1000 year old Acacia trees standing petrified through the ages of a hot dry sun. It’s a shutterbug play-land of cool interesting shots.
