Landing in Windhoek (6/4/2024)
We said goodbye to nThambo and flew to Windhoek, Namibia on June 4, 2024. Upon landing, our plan was to get a local SIM card and then grab a taxi to our hotel. Unfortunately, we got off to a bumpy start when the information desk pointed us to a very pushy taxi driver. He pressured us into skipping the SIM card at the airport by insisting that he could take us to the store in town which would be faster. Of course, the local SIM card option didn’t work and then dropping us off, he tried to charge us almost double what we had agreed to. To make things worse, the hotel security was also siding with the taxi driver insisting we pay him more. It wasn’t the greatest impression to start off Namibia. Even though we both knew that it didn’t feel right, and had avoided many similar situations in previous travels, we somehow let him get to us. It was a good reminder for us 1) to never go with anyone that is too pushy or impatient, and 2) that no matter how careful you think you are, mistakes happen. But when they do, you can’t get too hung up on it and you have to let it go (mostly talking to myself here).
The next morning, we headed out early to the car rental to pick up the car we would be driving throughout Namibia. We rented a 4×4 truck with a fold-up tent on the roof and all the camping gear we would need for the trip. This is a very common car rental setup for self-drivers. Pick-up ended up being a three-hour ordeal. It’s supposed to take about an hour due to all the things we need to learn, but unfortunately, there were some issues with our vehicle that needed to be fixed, causing further delays. This was stressful because we had a long drive to our campsite which closes by sunset. Fortunately, we were still able to get groceries and a SIM card and still able to make it to our campsite in Sesriem by Sossusvlei before sunset. Now the Namibia adventure was really starting!
Sossusvlei – A Real Wonder
The drive to Sesriem Campsite took about 5.5 hours from Windhoek with the majority of the drive on bumpy gravel roads. Namibia is beautiful, but truly a desolate and sparsely populated country. For many stretches, we did not see a single other person or car.
We pulled into our campsite #38 an hour before sunset and quickly got to setting everything up before losing light. We set up our tent and got ready to cook dinner – rice and beans with veggies. It is winter in Namibia, so sun sets around 6:30pm. We were cooking in the dark with our head lamps on portable gas stoves. Because it was the first time, everything took a while, but our dinner ended up being pretty good! Something about camp cooking makes everything taste better. After dinner, we had hot chocolate and rusks while stargazing. There is even less light pollution in Sesriem than at nThambo so we could see even more stars. By then, it was very cold (it was freezing at night) and we went off to bed.
Sunrise at Dune 45
We woke up at 5:30am to get ready to enter the park as soon as it opened at 6:30am. We wanted to climb the popular Dune 45 to see sunrise. It took us about 45 very tiring minutes to climb to the top in the cold brisk air. Climbing in the sand is so much more tiring than solid land. It was a cloudy morning, so we were not able to actually see the sunrise. However, it was still a spectacular view. The dunes at Sossusvlei are a beautiful red and huge. Pictures do not do justice to how majestic they look in person. It was quite crowded, but we stayed at the top for a while admiring the views long enough that we eventually were the only ones left.
Big Daddy and Deadvlei
After Dune 45, we made our way to the famous Big Daddy dune overlooking Deadvlei. We had to park in lot and then take a shuttle. Big Daddy is much bigger than Dune 45 – it is the second largest dune in Namibia. It took us about 1.5-hrs to climb to the top of Big Daddy. This was an awesome hike because on one side of the ridge, you could look down to Deadvlei and to the other side, you see so many sand dunes. Again, we spent a long time at the top of dune just trying to take everything in. Red sand dunes are one of the most incredible landscapes we have ever seen. Neither of us had ever seen anything quite like it. It really felt like we were in Dune or Star Wars – it felt other worldly. This is something that we felt throughout our time in Namibia.
When we were finally ready, we ran down the steep side of Big Daddy to Deadvlei below. Running down sand dunes is very fun. The sand is soft so you can run down without any strain on your knees. Big Daddy was so big that we had to run down it in multiple segments. We felt like kids running down with huge grins on our faces.
Once we reached the bottom, there was an abrupt change from the red sand to the cracked white clay surface of Deadvlei. “Vlei” means marsh in Afrikaans. So Deadvlei means “dead marsh”. 1000 years ago, Deadvlei was a marsh that got disconnected from the river and dried up. Since then, this dried marsh with scorched black trees has remained intact. To be honest, we didn’t think that Deadvlei seemed that cool from all the pictures we had seen. And even looking down from Big Daddy, we didn’t think it looked that amazing. But perspective makes all the difference. Once we were down standing on Deadvlei at eye-level, it was a whole other experience. It was absolutely breathtaking. The contrast of the white cracked clay surface and the black trees against the red sand is truly marvelous. As I mentioned previously, it felt otherworldly. All of Sossusvlei felt this way.
By the time we finished walking through Deadvlei, it was already 2pm. It was very hot with the sun beating down and having climbed two sand dunes, we were exhausted. We made our way back to our car.
Sesriem Canyon
Although we were exhausted from a long day, we couldn’t pass up the chance to go see Sesriem Canyon. Luckily, it was close to the campsite and it wasn’t strenuous to enter the canyon. It was bigger and larger than we expected. We only walked around for about 20-minutes or so before heading back to our campsite.
Second and Final Night at Sossusvlei
On our second night, everything went smoother than the first night since we had practice. We made the same meal for dinner followed by hot chocolate and rusk while stargazing. We retired earlier for the night. This time, I wore additional layers as it had been very cold the night before.
Sunrise at Elim Dune
We woke up once again at 5:30am to see sunrise. Luckily, this morning was clear with not a cloud in sight. Instead of going back to Dune 45 which is far from the campsite, we went to the less popular Elim Dune close by. Elim Dune is mostly known for sunsets. So perhaps that is why there was no one else. We had the entire dune to ourselves! We leisurely watched the sunset and climbed the dune. We even saw an oryx on the sand dune which was very cool.
We wrapped up around 9am to start our drive to our next stop, Swakopmund!
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