Sossusvlei
Namibia & Botswana, June – July 2018

Day 2 – Jun 20: Windhoek – Sossusvlei, Namib Naukluft National Park
Our destination was the Sossusvlei, a salt and clay pan surrounded by the world’s tallest sand dunes, located in the southern part of the Namib Desert, in the Namib-Naukluft National Park. The Namib is the world’s oldest desert and famous for it’s red sand dunes and unique wildlife.
We left very early morning, as we wanted to see sunrise outside of town and had decided to have a picnic breakfast along the way.

Our first picnic, an hour after leaving Windhoek for Sossusvlei.

We drove via Spreetshoogte Pass and Solitaire to Sesriem. According to the experts this route is about 1.5 hours longer than the direct route, but much more scenic.

We bought fire wood just before Sesriem and arrived at the campsite early afternoon. We checked-in at Sesriem Campsite and then checked out our allocated camping spot. We found a better vacant spot and claimed that by putting up our table and chairs there and informed the reception. No problem.
Less than half an hour after arrival we were back in the car, on our way to explore Sossusvlei and Dead Vlei, yeah…!
Day 3 – 15 July: Tarangire National Park
A full day in the park, we decided to drive a large loop, exploring the river and surrounding marshes, some savanna and the more bush-covered hills.


Nothing can really prepare you for this unbelievably spectacular landscape.


At the end of the tar road we deflated our tires, switched into 4 wheel-drive and had a first go at some real off-road driving through deep sand, to the parking area at Dead Vlei. To our surprise there was only 1 other car. Cool, as we don’t really like large crowds…! We walked into the vlei and only saw 3 other people leave the vlei, which we then had entirely for ourselves the rest of the afternoon.



You have to be out of the park when it gets dark, so we decided to drive to world famous Dune 45 for a spectacular sunset.
Day 3 – Jun 21: Sossusvlei, Namib Naukluft National Park
As advised, we lined up at the entrance gate just before the official opening time, for a head-start to Dead Vlei. It wasn’t too busy yet, about 10 cars were waiting for the gate to open. We then drove straight to Dead Vlei. We were the first car to arrive and therefore the first ones to start the climb of famous Big Daddy, the tallest dune in the area.




Spectacular views in every direction.
From the summit of Big Daddy we ran down barefoot to the bottom of the actual Dead Vlei. We really enjoyed this and as little kids we jumped and tumbled down the dunes. What an amazing feeling, this fine and cold sand…!


The sand is incredibly soft, and cold!
