Posts tagged with “Sossusvlei”
Namibia tour – further comments
In my previous post + the 5 that followed on it, I reflected on our recent trip to the southern part of Namibia. With this posting I make a few additional comments which I hope readers may find useful.
In my previous posts I have tried to paint the picture of the vastness of the landscape.
One may add that camping sites also need to be viewed a bit differently from, say, Mossel Bay in December. I thought I’ll try to give an idea what I’m talking about, courtesy of Google Maps’ 3D function.
Oewerbos.
It was a rather glorious evening, sitting on the banks of the Orange river with the sun setting. On a cable (seemed like the feed of a foefie slide) a few birds were sitting. The variety with real wings, I mean. One had caught a fish, which he had in his beak. The fish was still very much alive, and evidently not amused. So the bird casually bludgeoning the fish to death on the cable. It took a number of attempts before the fish gave up the good fight. Such is life, nuh?
[Source: Imagery ©2017 CNES / Airbus, Map data ©2017 AfriGIS (Pty) Ltd, Google, South Africa www.google.com/maps]
Border post
The experience had been swift and painless on both occasions (in and out). Not knowing where to go, I stopped at the first official looking office, where I was told where to park, “where you unpack”. Aag no! It thought. But it turned out the stern looking member of SAPS was just having a bit of fun with me. No unpacking.
From what I understood from Neville at Oewerbos, the hunting season just opened a day or two before. Or maybe on that day – it was 1 July. That probably explained why, on the day of our return, all the vehicles in our vicinity, ours included, got searched.
In an endeavor to maximize packing effectivity, my wife bought us each a R50 nylon zipper bag. They were enormous. You could pack an illegal immigrant in it with ease. We did not, though, just for the records. But on first blush, the rear of the bakkie did look as though it could have been packed with “goods”, with these enormous bags being very evident. Well, actually, it was not that evident. It only became evident once I removed the groundsheet that I had over it to protect from dust and rain. Given that there had been neither dust nor rain when we arrived at the post, it might have raised some suspicion. So the gentlemen from (I assume) SARS and SAPS opened each of these bags, and meticulously went through our clothing.
A docile looking dog that appeared to be half ridge-back and two-and-a-half some other things, stood by. I greeted him friendly. He showed no interest, but I took that as a good sign.
My wife was contemplating whether the combination of our packing system and the age of our vehicle might have counted against us. I think not, though. All vehicles that looked like it could accommodate meat seem to have been checked, and one could easily stack a few kudu’s into those bags of us, provided of course they were not alive any more, and also not in one peace.
But even the lady right in front of us with a midget Peugeot got checked. The friendly dog gave her more than just a sniff-over and she had to park elsewhere for a more thorough search. I did see here again at Klawer, though, so evidently there was just a bit of mis-sniffing that had to be sorted out.
Once in Namibia
My youngest had difficulties grasping the concept that we’re driving along a river in Namibia, but just about 100m away from us – you could swim there – was a completely different country. Ours.
On that road we at one stage stopped to see if we could pinpoint the De Hoop camping site on the South African side of the Richtersveld, but by then we must have been past that point already.
Rosh Pinah
Mmmm…. Well, I only filled up my bakkie, and did not take much notice of the town, other than to notice that it was being overrun by bakkies with CBR registration numbers. Montagu by the mine?
Aus
I have never been to Aus before. But for some reason I had a totally different picture in my head, and more in particular, I though the town was on the other side of the main road. It reminded me of Paternoster, it’s just a bit further away from the sea. At the fuel station people were queuing to fill up. It was a rather busy fuel stop.
We went past Klein Aus, but did not drive in there. I was just amazed that Klein Aus could be smaller than Aus. That’s now, judging by the name.
The road to Luderitz
Captivating. And more so the closer you get to Luderitz. The sand blowing over the road, the very strong wind, and a chilly evening in Luderitz gave a bit of a, well, windy feeling, but once inside things were perfect.
[Source: Imagery ©2017 DigitalGlobe, TerraMetrics, D SIO, NOAA, US Navy GEBCO, Landaat / Copernicus, Map data ©2017, Google, South Africa www.google.com/maps]
Feral horses of Aus
It’s not quite like the pride stud of some upstanding equestrian estate. It’s more like a Huis-Amper-Dood kind of retirement place for horses, only less luxurious than what the human version of such institutions would normally offer.
Gunsbewys
Gertrude Grabner’s vast knowledge of the dunes and what lives there, made this visit very special. A worthwhile visit.
[Source: Imagery ©2017 GeoEye, Map data ©2017, South Africa, www.google.com/maps]
Koiimasis
Each place had its own character. Koiimasis offered us a huge camping site, wonderful ablution close by, but with no warm water or electricity. Not that it is a problem, it just helps knowing it beforehand. There are a number of activities to do there, like among other things, horse riding. We only did the 5km walking trail.
[Source: Imagery ©2017 DigitalGlobe, Map data ©2017, South Africa www.google.com/maps]
What you’re looking at in this picture, is 4 camping sites on the far side of the little koppie, with a …
Namibia Tour 2017 – Part 4
Day six
Friends leaving
Adriaan and Lizette left shortly after sunrise to arrange and attend the funeral and pay their respects. I felt a rather emply gloominess with them departing.
Koiimasis ranch is an active farm with a horse stud and livestock. You can check their website: http://www.namibia-farm-lodge.com/. Due to the drought the live stock had been removed from the farm, though. We went on a 5km walking trail the afternoon. It’s a nice walk, with a viewpoint along the road.
That evening we baked a pot bread, and the remainder of the steakof the prevous evening found its way into the potjiekos.
Day seven
Sossus Oasis
This was the first morning where we had to decamp and pack the vehicles from scratch. Everything went rather efficiently, though. By half past nine we were ready to leave.
[Source: Imagery © 2017 Landsat / Copernicus, Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO, Map data © 2017 AfriGIS (Pty) Ltd, Google www.google.com/maps]
Johnie was now in the lead.
We hit the sandy D707 again, but had the good fortune of eventually landing on the freshly graded tracks of a grader. At a windswept Betta we stopped for petrol and coffee and snacks.
I found Betta to be a curious place. It seems in the middle of nowhere, and I wondered whether you decide to start a refreshment station there in the middle of nothing, or whether you incidentally live there, see the opportunity, and then slowly develop the place. Betta offers accommodation, with a nicely developed website: http://www.bettacamp.net/. I noticed that each of the camping sites had water, electricity, roof cover and a deck.
We met up with a Swiss cyclist at Betta. Africa was his last continent to conquer before returning home.
Being so close to Duwiseb, we considered paying Duwiseb a visit. By democratic election the vote went the way of visiting Duwiseb, but we nevertheless eventually decided gainst it. We were swayed by another tourist’s advice of how bad the road from Betta to Sesriem was. So we decided to rather get the trip to Sesriem over and done with.
Good call. I like driving on gravel roads, so I hate to have to admit that, by the end of the day, I found the road to Sesriem to be just 20 kilometers too far.
[Pictures: Mariki Stassen]
The gravel roads that we travelled varied from the sublime (Solitaire to Maltehohe) to the exciting (sandy D707 rounding the Tiras mountains) to the horrible – Betta to Sesriem. Very rocky and corrugated.
[Picture: Mariki Stassen]
We arrived at Sossus Oasis just past 16h00. There was a nice buzz at the shop. There was a garage and a workshop. I suppose every enterprise on a road such as this one would also stock a few new tyres. You could collect wi-fi vouchers valid for two days at the shop, and utilise the wi-fi on the stoep of the shop. From there we could see campsite 1 – 12, built in a circle, and each with its own shade, shower and wash-up. This looked very nice! http://www.sossus-oasis.com/
However, we were directed to site 15. The road went past the larnie sites 1 – 12. It went past two other sites. It pretty much went past everything, before ending up under a tree at the outer edge of the terrain. I guess it was the outer edge, because there was nothing else but open plains.
My initial thought was that this was a real dust heap. However, upon further inspection it turned out that there was a built braai, working surface for a kitchen, electric light and plugs to tap electricity from. On top of that the large tree provided ample shade for most of the day. We were closest to the swimming pool of all the sites, and there was very nice ablution about 50 meters away. And once we had the tents pitched, it actually turned out to be the best site of all! Some ladies of our group even went for a swim.
Our site can be seen in the background.
The ladies churned out pasta and salad for the evening and after that we sat down for a game of banana scrabble. Having electricity on top of running water ablution and warm water ranks as ultra luxurious for me. This turned out to be a really nice spot.
Day eight
Sossusvlei
After obtaining our permits at Sesriem, we headed out on the 60km tar road to Sossusvlei just past 8 the morning. At a speed limit of 60km/h it is a rather sedate drive to where the tar road stops.
[Source: Imagery © 2017 Landsat / Copernicus, Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO, Map data © 2017 AfriGIS (Pty) Ltd, Google www.google.com/maps]
After 45 km there is a stop at what has probably become a rather iconic Dune 45. No prizes for guessing where the dune got its name from.
The teenager in our company was very disappointed in how small the dune is. He was counting on telling his mates that he scaled the highest dune in the world. However, halfway up Dune 45 he reconsidered the feasibility of scaling the highest dune in the world.
I have to admit, I was also disappointed to afterwards learn that Dune 45 is but a lousy 80 meters high, as opposed to Dune 7 near Walvis Bay which apparently reaches 388m. Paah! They should not even call Dune 45 a dune, man! But on the bright side, at least I can say that I climbed out Dune 45. I guess the fact that I did climb Dune 7 when I was 12 years old does not warrant current bragging rights.
[Picture: Mariki Stassen]
After reaching the highest spot on Dune 45 our teenager decided to opt for a speedy descent. Running soon became falling with style. Rather spectacular.
We then continued to the parking area where the tar road ends. There you can contract an operator in a 4×4 vehicle to take you the last 5 km’s to Sossusvlei, Deadvlei and Hidden vlei. Or you can let down your tyres on your 4×4 and drive in yourself. As there is no way that Johnie would let someone drive him into terrain that he feels …