Sossusvlei, Namibia by Kev

11.6.2025. We're off to Sesriem today. I don't know much about it, except there's lots of sand dunes there. We packed and checked to make sure we'd not forgotten anything, then set off. It was around a 5 hours drive, with a stop at a place called Solitaire. Well several stops actually, for pictures. The landscape on the trip was something else. There was an even better stop, a sudden, emergency sort of stop. A bunch of little critters ran across the road and I hit the skids to miss them. Meerkats! We had really wanted to see them, but had given up hope. Here they were running across the road in front of us. We turned and watched them for a bit. Woohoo, meerkats! Emma was stoked, that was one animal she really wanted to see. We got to Sesriem, without running anything over, paid our park fees for two days and checked into our campsite. It was still the early afternoon, so we decided to go and check out the canyon walk. It's only a few kilometres from the campsite and was well worth a look. We trekked down into the canyon, heading one way first. We stopped when the path became blocked and headed back the other way. As we walked, it began to open up wider. Andrew and I climbed a bit for some photos, and for fun. We had walked a fair bit, when I noticed there were no other tourists. I got a little worried, it is still Africa after all, so we headed back towards the entrance. Back to the campsite, set up the tents for the night and went about making dinner.
12.6.2025. We're off to see “big daddy”, a massive sand dune, so up early and driving into the park in the dark. When we arrived we read about the trees near the dune. Like a dead forest, they have been here for over a 1000 years. Too dry to decompose, so they still stand. Slowly being covered and uncovered as the dunes shift. The only wear and tear coming from the sand and wind. We walked around the huge, flat, dry dirt area between the dunes where the trees are for a bit. People coming here in years to come will see a different landscape to what we are seeing. Then we decided to climb the sand dune, 325m high and who knows how wide. It took us a couple hours I think, lost track of time. It's hard work trekking up a sand dune, and of course, we picked a harder path, that's just what we do. I can honestly say my legs were close to giving out right at the top. Andrew said he was tired, tho showed no signs of slowing down. Emma trudged up the dunes with no complaints, just resting when we all did. At the start of the trip, Emma could not have done this, she has come a long way, both physically and mentally. I still remember having to push her up a hill in Battambang. Emma received no help today, just praise. The view from the top was something else, looking out over kilometres of sand dunes to mountains far away. we had our fill of being on top a sand dune and decided to head back down. So much easier to go back down, and way faster. We just went straight down the slip face of the dune. It looks really steep from the bottom, but we have learned that a dune can't be steeper than 33°, and was pretty fun to go down. At the bottom I took my shoes off and emptied them out. Chock a block full of sand, and it was getting painful. 2 hours to go up, a few minutes to get down, sounds about right. We walked around the huge open area for a bit, it really is something special to see. We headed back to the campsite, had some lunch and relaxed. Later, we packed again as we are heading back to Windhoek tomorrow. Our time in Africa is coming to an end. We got everything ready for a quick takeoff and the kids played. Dinner around our last campfire, then bed.
13.6.2025. We woke up early as we have a 5 hour drive back to Windhoek to catch our flight to Paris. The kids went down the ladders, and went to put on their shoes. One problem, one of each shoe was missing. I looked out of the tent and shone a light down. There were small tracks around both ladders, heading off into bush to who knows where. My assumption is, jackals. Bloody jackals! They took one of each of the kids' shoes. Why not both of one pair? Now we have to buy two new pairs of shoes, and Andrew's shoes were barely a week old. That sounds like a Paris problem. We packed up the tents and headed off. We were about 30mins from Sesriem when an animal ran across the road, and I had to slow down. Hyenas! Spotted hyenas! Tick another animal off the list. There was a group of around 8-10, and they seemed curious but cautious of us. We drove through some amazing country, over the top of some mountains. The car said outside it got down to -1°. Happy to be inside the car. We dropped off the car and got a lift to the airport. Spent the last of our Namibian dollars on lunch and waited for our plane. First stop will be Ethiopia, then another plane to Paris after midnight.
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