Thursday, May 1, 2014

Sand Sea

The last section puts us on a road of sand and, sometimes, corrugation with rock. The latter track can be taxing on those without suspension and/or fat tires. If desert landscape inspires you, this is your paradise. Vegetation is sparse and whatever grows is thorny.


On our last rest day, Steven, drove the staff and some stragglers to dune 45, an iconic formation out on Sossuvlei. A group of us hopped on the lunch truck at sunset and headed for deep sand.


Here is the place where we could have climbed the ridge. 


Instead, we rolled further west in a vain attempt to catch the sunset. When we arrived at the vantage point, we got the following view. By the length of the shadows, one can see that the sun is fading quickly.


The story of sand is fascinating and the Namibian government, to its credit, has preserved much of this unique, precious landscape. Equally important, the wildlife are protected and the safari industry is primarily for photographers not hunters. Curiously, one of our campsites here was abandoned by the Namibian manager and it was occupied by Afrikaners who had driven up to hunt for game such as oryx.






3 comments:

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  2. Hi Cameron, This is the most amazing trip! I read it from start to finish today. You must be ready to come home!

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  3. There is something quite magical about seeing the sun set from on top of the dunes. You sure have seen a wide variety of landscape along your trip!

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