![namibia africa sand dunes namibia africa sand dunes](https://cdn.face2faceafrica.com/www/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Sossusvlei-and-the-Namib-Desert.jpg)
But it's been a long time since there was any water here. It's name means “dead marsh,” because the pan is dotted with spindly, dead camel thorn trees. Now it was time to head to Deadvlei, another spot I was looking forward to.ĭeadvlei is a white clay pan settled in between towering orange dunes. And let me tell you from experience that it's NOT very easy to pass people on the unstable spine of a sand dune like this! Visiting DeadvleiĪfter packing the truck back up following breakfast, we drove a little further into the park and transferred from our huge overland truck into a smaller safari vehicle. By this point, Dune 45 was teeming with people climbing it. You're really not supposed to do this, but…Īt the bottom, we had our breakfast at the truck and thanked our guide, Philile, for making us get up so early. I shoved my camera inside my coat, and we all had fun running down the last part of the dune. I did it! Looking down from on top of the dune.īy the time we headed back down the dune, the sun was warming up the sand and a strong wind had come up, whipping fine grains against our ankles and calves. I eventually made it to the top, where I found a couple people from my group still posing for photos and postponing having to go back down to the truck. You think you've reached the top, and then you see THIS. (Though, to be fair, it IS a great place to take photos, especially as the sand began to change colors the further the sun rose.) I stopped every few dozen steps, using taking photos or video as an excuse to take a break. My two weeks of luxury (read: lots of food and not much exercise) in South Africa was catching up to me. The sort of sand where you sink one step backwards for every two you take forwards. Unlike the dunes I climbed at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico last year, Dune 45 is not made from densely-packed damp sand that holds up under your feet.
![namibia africa sand dunes namibia africa sand dunes](https://www.intrepidtravel.com/adventures/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Dune-45-e1542242484753.jpg)
It was still nice and cool when we started our climb (helped by the fact that it was wintertime in Namibia), which I was thankful for after about the first 50 steps. This was our first stop of the day, where we admired the shadows and bright orange color of the 550+ feet of sunkissed sand before tearing off up it before more dune-climbing tourists showed up. The most famous sand dune in the park is Dune 45 – so named because it's located 45 kilometers from the Sesriem gate. It meant that when we were finally let into Namib-Naukluft National Park, we could see all the dunes we were driving past in the early morning light. Many people plan to climb one of the famous dunes at sunrise, but we were still waiting at the gate at the entrance to the park as the first rays of sun began creeping above the horizon. We had our tents packed up by 4:30 a.m., and were dozing on the truck as the night slowly began to give way to daylight. Our morning started early – well before sunrise, in fact, since we had to drive about an hour to the entrance to the park.
NAMIBIA AFRICA SAND DUNES FULL
Thankfully, the overland tour I chose with Acacia Africa had us spending a full day in Namib-Naukluft National Park. I wasn't going to go all the way to Africa and not see those dunes! If a tour didn't include a trip to the Namib-Naukluft desert, it went way down on my list of possibilities. When I first started planning my trip to Southern Africa, there was one thing at the top of my to-do list: to visit Sossusvlei and its famous orange sand dunes in Namibia.Įvery overland tour I looked at, every itinerary I considered, that was the number one thing I looked for. Also, some posts on this site contain affiliate links, meaning if you book or buy something through one of these links, I may earn a small commission. Be sure to check local restrictions and be willing to adhere to any and all safety regulations before planning a trip to any of the places you may read about on this site. Travel looks very different right now depending on where you're from and where you're going.