Africa

We got a 5am start and had lots of driving today! We had over two hours until our first stop, and the Lodge packed us an excellent, large breakfast, so we ate it a bit at a time over the next 7 hours. We had 3 main activities today. In Sossusvlei in the Namib Dessert, we saw the highest dunes in the world, and the only red ones, possibly the most famous. The first activity was to climb Dune 45, which is the most photographed sand dune in the world, composed of red sand, from the iron oxide in it, in a star formation. It has been quite windy in the area lately, and this morning it was blowing hard, but not too hard for people to climb the dune. Still, we climbed into the wind, with sand whipping at our bodies. It was quite gruelling and Sharon reached the top, however Grant opted not to do it because of his spongy knee from the fall he had on the slippery floor a few days ago. The second activity was made in a transport vehicle in the dunes to a 1 km walk into Deadvier, which is an ancient salt flat, with petrified trees that are still standing. The 3rd activity of the day was to Sesriem Canyon, a very interesting canyon, although not deep by world standards, is made up of sedimentary and conglomerate layers of rocks. It was another two hours drive back to the Zebra Lodge on the gravel roads, some parts which rattled the poor bus so badly it shook like crazy on the dry washboard. In late afternoon Grant started to feel sick, the same thing Sharon had a few days ago so he didn’t eat dinner and went to bed.Read more