Sossusvlei Sand Dunes - May 2

Scott woke to leave at 4.30 – I guess I probably could have joined in then – but there was also some confusion over the cost – the hotel seemed to be charging twice as much at $500 than if you had booked through TdA earlier – it seemed a lot of money. When I eventually got up I had a great breakfast sitting out on the balcony admiring the view – the stillness!! There’s nothing – just the wind gentling waving the long grass and red sand dunes off in the distance – with hills surrounding the scene. I then met up with James who had also managed to miss out on the morning trip and we decided to maybe do the evening one instead. $100 was still a lot to pay but cheaper than the morning’s outing. It seemed as though it would be good – especially as with all the recent rain these are once in a lifetime conditions!

Lunch was pretty good but we had to persuade them to give us a second round of food – think they were a bit shocked at how much we could eat! At 2.30 we set off for the dunes – it was a great drive through amazing countryside – quite unbelievable – we saw ostrich, baboons, gemsbok, springbok, kudu and the most amazing sand dunes!! The first few we reached had grass growing and then further down the valley just sand. Sand dune after sand dune after sand dune!! After about an hour we went off road and went right down onto the river bed – where there was a lake at the end. Pretty amazing. We drove along the river bed and then stopped and headed off towards the Dead Vlei – basically dead trees that have been there hundreds of years because they don’t rot. Very eerie! Walked up over a sand dune – which was not easy –this is probably the most we have walked the last few months – so using a few muscles we don’t use on our bikes! There was a big clay flat lake and then all these dead tress – apparently they are much photographed and have appeared in lots of movies – must have looked especially forbidding in the morning mist!! We then went back to the truck and drove over to the other side right by the lake – which was surrounded by sand dunes. We walked up one – a couple of hundred metres – hard work – much more fun running down it again!! Then we climbed up on top of the truck and enjoyed a couple of beers and some snacks as we watched the sun set!!

Back in the truck I was half asleep for the drive home – we were there just in time for dinner. They seemed to have learned that we would want plenty of food as there were loads of sides to go with a great game steak following bacon soup! I also ended up having 4 puddings – so was feeling good!! And ready for bed!!