I walked from my accomodation to the
Cardboard Box, where I'd booked my next tour. Even though my tour
wasn't through the hostel, that's where the company did their
pickups. The guy picking me up was 20 minutes late, which didn't
surprise me, I'd gotten used to these sorts of delays during my trip.
The driver ended up being the guy in
charge of everything, but he wasn't the guide/driver. He took me to a
supermarket, where we met up with a couple ladies from Luxembourg,
and our driver/guide. I took advantage of a few minutes free to go
into the supermarket and pick up a few snacks. There are never enough
snacks.
From there we drove out of Windhoek.
The landscape and road turned very rural very quickly after we left
the city. Namibia is mostly desert, though with a wide variety of
desert landscapes. While we drove, I got to see mountains in the
distance, which were gorgeous. I'd love to go back and hike there.
The road was unsealed, which meant our driver had to watch carefully
nearly the entire time, so we didn't puncture tires.
We pulled over at a sortof rest stop
along the way for lunch. I say sortof rest stop because it was just a
couple tables on an overlook. There was nothing else there, but with
the views we had, I didn't need anything else.
Our lunch was cold cut
sandwiches, yogurt, and orange juice. While trying to capture the
views I realized I need a wide angle camera. From this viewpoint we
could see the house where the Farmers Union meets every so often. We
could see down into a valley, surrounded by mountains. This sortof
rest stop was basically at the top of a pass.
From the top of the pass we drove down
into the wide valley floor. The road was full of switchbacks, and was
'paved' with stone bricks. It was actually in better shape than the
road we'd already driven.
Eventually we got to a small town
called Solitaire. It wasn't even really a town. More of a rest stop
with a campground and small motel, bakery, and petrol station. There
were old, abandoned cars and trucks everywhere, fun to take photos of
them. The desert is not kind to old cars and trucks.
After our guide/driver had a tire fixed
(it turns out the road is bad enough that punctured tires and tubes
happen pretty much everytime you drive,) and got more petrol, we
started driving again.
We entered Namib Naukluft National
Park, (the first national park established in the country,) and found the campsite. A few minutes later, we piled back into
the car, and our driver/guide took us to the foot of several sand
dunes. We climbed these dunes in an effort to chase the sunset. It
was definitely a workout, which was nice to have after a day of
riding in a car. Everytime I got to what I thought was the top, I
could see another crest a bit in front of me. I never really caught
the sunset, but I tried. As the sun fell lower and lower I really
enjoyed the colour of the light, and the peaceful feeling in the
area.
While we were doing this climb we were
there at the same time as another tour group, which was a bit bigger.
It was a mixed group, with Japanese, Koreans, a chick from Ohio
State, and a guy who attended the University of Michigan. All of that
group was on a longer tour through more than just the national park.
On my way back down the dune I realized
my Luxembourger mates hadn't made it as far up the dune as I had.
They had gotten confused about the time at which we would meet our
driver at the bottom, so they didn't climb as far up.
Back at the campsite our driver/guide
cooked dinner for us. We had (marinated) pork steak, and canned
veggies. Unfortunately, we didn't have any light, so we weren't able
to see our food very well. It was good, but I wish we'd been able to
see. What I could see were the stars in the sky, which were pretty
incredible.
There was a lodge, where I went to hang
out for a little bit after dinner. I used the plugs to charge my
phone, and used the light to read on my kindle. There were people
there who seemed intent on getting drunk, I wasn't one of them. When
I got back to the campsite I found the Luxembourgers had already gone
to bed, even though it was only 2100. I tried to take a few photos of
the sky (SO MANY STARS) but I don't know how to use my camera well
enough for those to turn out well.
I had my own tent in which to sleep,
which was awesome.
The next morning my alarm went off
waaaaay too early. It was just at the time when I had set it, but it
was only 0430, so it was still dark, and cold. Not so fun.
Nevertheless, I got ready to go, because I was excited about what was
on the itinerary for the day.
We all hopped into the van, and got to
an interior entry gate, and waited in queue with other vehicles. The
interior gate opened at 0530, and our guide drove with a lead foot.
We got to where we were going first.
Dune 45 has the name because it is 45
kilometers from the entry of the park. (I think.) This is a dune
where nearly every tour group comes to climb the dune and watch the
sun rise. We were the first to start climbing, but we were definitely
not the first to reach the top. How do people go so fast up a hill of
sand?!? Climbing dunes is a good workout, especially in the dark. In
a way I didn't mind being behind a few people, as it was actually
easier to follow in their footsteps.
At the top of the dune we all took
photos, and people were generally polite in helping others take
photos. It is a beautiful, but unreal landscape. I can see why movie
studios use this sort of a landscape to make an audience think we're
on a different planet. At one point nearly everyone climbing sat on
the ridge of the dune and watched the sun rise. Beautiful. The
colours of everything seem to change constantly, depending on where
the sun is in the sky, but generally you can say that the sand is red
on this dune.
Dune 45 is 170 meters high, and the
sand is 5 million years old. More than a little of it ended up in my
hair. The wind constantly recreates the shape of the dune.
I 'walked' down the dune (definitely
easier than coming up, and far more fun) back to the parkplatz.
Breakfast was yogurt, juice, cereal and milk, etc...
After packing up the food, we drove a
bit further down the road, Eventually we pulled over into another
parkplatz, and our guide/driver went to buy us tickets. We didn't
know what these tickets were for, but soon found out. We needed these
tickets to get on the 4x4 vehicle that drove us to the next spot.
The road to the next stop is a road
requiring 4 wheel drive. Even with the proper vehicle, you need to
know what you're doing, as the sand is easy to get stuck in. After
getting on our vehicle, we saw several stuck vehicles as we drove
along.
The dropoff point for our next stop
didn't seem special in any way. I wouldn't have known anything
special was there. We followed our guide, who took us over another
small dune, into another gorgeous area.
This new area was called Sossusvlei, or
Dead Vlei. A looooooong time ago there was a river here, so there was
more than just sand. At one point in history, the route of the river
changed (or it dried up completely,) so all life was lost.
All you
see now are the fossilized remains of the trees. They are mostly
still standing, in what little clay remains.
It's really quite strange to see the
trees, with the blue sky, red sand, and white clay. I was one of
quite a few people taking photos, some of whom had giant,
professional looking lenses. I don't know if you need that much of a
lense to take a photo of something only a couple meters away, but if
that was my job, I could probably justify it. I'm pretty sure I took
a photo of nearly every tree in the area, trying to keep other people
out of the photos.
As we were walking back toward the area
to catch the 4x4 again, the wind picked up, a LOT. It wasn't easy to
walk with wind/sand blowing directly at me. It's the kind of walk you
make somewhat blind because your eyes are almost closed.
It was sortof a relief to get to the
parking area, except that there was no shelter for anyone except a
couple trees. At that point it was hot, very sunny, and very windy.
That's when I learned that there is no orderly way for catching a 4x4
going back the other way. Groups of people wait around, and you hope
that one of the 4x4s will come close to your group with room enough
for all of you.
There is no designated pickup place, and there is no
area for queueing. Well, that's not true, the entire area is for
waiting and 'queueing,' much to the frustration of pretty much
everyone. The guides form relationships with the drivers, and you
hope that the friendship your guide has is stronger than someone
else's. There is a lot of dashing across the area when one of the
4x4s stops for a pickup, hoping you can get on. I saw more than one
person get really angry, pounding on the vehicle and yelling at the
driver. I was getting dehydrated, sunburnt, windburned, and
sandburned.
Finally, we got a ride back to our
vehicle. Then we drove back to the campground, for what we thought
would be a short stop. We packed up our camping stuff, and went
inside the lodge to cool down and find ice cream. It was more than
two hours before we saw our guide again. It turned out he had gone to
get a tire fixed, and grocery shopping, but didn't tell us this, so
we spent the time wondering what was going on. Argh.
Our next stop was a canyon. It's not
wide, or even noticeable from far away, but when you get there, you
can't help but be impressed. It's called the Sesriem Canyon, and is
about 2 kilometers long. The bottom is mostly sand, and you can
wander through a lot of it. There is some water in some areas, and
when it rains they say you have to be very careful for flash
flooding.
We didn't have much time in the canyon,
I wish we'd had more. If anything, I kinda wish the guide had dropped
us off at the canyon while he did his errands, which would've given
us much more time to explore. Oh well. I know what to ask for when I
come back. The Luxembourg ladies didn't seem to want much time at
anything we were seeing, I don't know why.
After leaving the canyon, we drove back
to Solitaire. This time we stayed there overnight. I was excited, as
it meant I would get to have a treat at the bakery. Unfortunately, we
arrived too late for that to happen that afternoon. Darnit. There
wasn't much to do there, not even much in the way of places to walk,
so I was rather bored.
We chatted a bit with some others
camping there, there were a couple RVs with German couples traveling
around the continent for 5 months. That sounds like an amazing trip
to me! The Luxembourg ladies spoke German (and French, and
Luxembourgish, and English,) so they were much better able to
communicate, and did some translating for me.
This time we had some light by which to
eat dinner. The food wasn't as good, but I loved that I could see
what I was eating. We were eating while an amazing sunset was
happening, so a couple times I got up and ran off with my phone to
try to take a photo.
We were in separate tents again that
night, only waking up when the vehicle of a different group was
turned on at 0500 in the morning. I'm generally a heavy sleeper, but
those overland trucks are loud. Argh. I couldn't get back to sleep,
even though it was still dark, so I stared at the ceiling of my tent
for a while. Eventually it was light again, and I started reading my
kindle again.
Breakfast was the same we'd had the day
before. Yogurt, cereal, and toast. This time the bakery was open, so
I went with the Luxeumbourg ladies to try it out. I ended up with an
apple something or other, and a cup of tea. Pretty tasty.
While we were eating, our guide was
packing everything up. After a while, we hopped back in, and started
the long drive back to Windhoek. Since we'd come back to Solitaire
the night before, our drive wasn't going to be as long. At least, we
didn't think it would be that long.
It ended up being that long, and more,
because we had to stop several times because of the tires. Several
times at least one of our tires went flat, and at least one of those
involved a punctured tube. Argh. The road is mostly in the middle of
nowhere, I'm just glad we were close to a car shop of sorts when we
really needed help. That stop was at least 45 minutes.
Eventually we got back to Windhoek. The
guide dropped me off at the front door of my next accomodation, and I
said goodbye.
I'd LOVE to go back to this national
park. I would skip the sunrise and sunset climbs, or at least do them
on different dunes. I want to see Sossusvlet when there are far fewer
people around, and see more of the area in general. Plus, I loved the
stars at night, I want to see more of those!
