Namibia day 3 - Deadvlei

It is so quiet here at night, you really get the sense that you are in the middle of nowhere. The stars and milky way could easily be seen above us as we walked back to our rooms after supper last night.

We were up early and left the lodge by 6am to drive to Sossusvlei. Although people think of all of  area as being Sossusveli, it actually is only the vlei (salt pan) at the end of the road with the huge red sand dunes all around it. There is one long road into the gated Namib-Naukluft Park, and we passed the famous Dune 45 (so named as it is 45km into the park) which already had so many people climbing up its ridge to watch the sun rise from up there. We drove past as we were heading for Deadvlei, which is a white clay pan that has the famous dead camel thorn trees in it that are over 1000 years old. The trees have not decomposed as it is so dry there. The red sand dunes surrounding Deadvlei are claimed to be the highest in the world, some reaching 300-400 meters high, the highest being Big Daddy which also had people climbing up it first thing this morning. 

We spent about 2.5 hours walking around Deadvlei taking photos of the various trees. They have fascinating shapes and against the red dunes make a great subject for photos. We were wearing shorts and T shirts with a light fleece as it was about 14C when we left the lodge, but by 11am it was already 35C. After we finished taking photos at Deadvlei we went to Sossusvlei where we had a picnic breakfast under the shade of a camel thorn tree. I am very pleased I brought my own GF muesli and oat milk although the chef at the lodge has tried so hard to make special foods to suit my dietary requirements. By the time we left the park it had risen to 38C and although it is very hot at least it is a dry heat without humidity.

We had a lovely lunch and the chef very kindly baked me some GF bread which was actually rather good. It was so hot that we could not wait to go back to our air conditioned tented rooms. 

For some reason our Apple phones can’t cope with google mail or gmail here in this remote part of Namibia  so we all lost access to our email accounts. Tommy suggested downloading the Gmail app which we did, and we can now access our emails through that app rather than through the mail facility on our phones.

We went out again in the late afternoon to photograph some more red sand dunes. We spent ages photographing Dune, 40, Dune 45 and the dead camel thorn trees across the road. You can see Dune 40 in the second extra. The last extra was taken before sunrise as we drove into the park this morning. The Namibia-Nauklift park - actually the Namibia sand sea as it is known - is a UNESCO World Heritage site due to its superlative natural phenomena and geological status. 

It has been a great day of taking many photos, it has felt like I am on a photography workshop as we have arranged everything around the photography, which Thomas is really enjoying. I can see why this place is a photographer's paradise! In addition to landscape photos I have also photographed some wildlife today - oryx, ostrich and some birds.

A special treat tomorrow so it is another early start, we leave at 5.50am for a helicopter flight over the dunes.