Africa

7:15am - Waiting for the park gates to open. We were number six in line hoping to get in before sunrise at 7:30am. Unfortunately, it did not happen - some chose to see it from the air.
The desert scenery driving into Sossusvlei is spectacular consisting of huge apricot coloured dunes with curving ridges. At Sossusvlei is Dead Vlei, which is old pans with dead acacia trees, some of which are 500 to 900 years old. We enjoyed our champagne breakfast under an acacia tree where we had a visit from a black-backed jackal. There is also the Big Daddy dune (300 metres tall) - we decided not to climb for exercise and instead climbed Dune 45 the next day which was tough going in the soft sand. The spectacular sand dune patterns continued driving out of Sossusvlei. Sesriem canyon is 30m deep in places, carved by the Tsauchab River. Early settlers used to draw water from it by knotting together six (called ses) lengths of hide rope (called riems). Hence it became know as ses riems. Our final photos are at Desert Homestead Lodge.Read more