Sossusvlei and back to Windhoek

Wed 9th
Up at 5am, quick hot drink and on the road to Sossusvlei. At Sesriem we had to wait about 10 mins until sunset for the gates to open to the Namib desert national park and then we were through. As the sun came up the dunes glowed red and we stopped at dune number one to take a quick look at the base and see what tracks we could find. We found beetle, lizard and a porcupine track! On to dune 45 we stopped and whilst Jason got breakfast ready Tris, Celso and I tried to climb up the dune. It is so tiring, thighs burning we felt we were reaching the top when more would loom above us. Eventually we gave up, Tris and I decided to slide down the face whilst Celso ran back down the ridge. After a slow start Tristan beat me to the bottom, both of us filled with sand. We found some really strange rocks that Delphin tells us are called Elephant skin because they are wrinkled on the surface like elephant skin. In this region a lot of these rocks have been found, the outside looks like elephant skin but the inside can be any type of rock and scientists are not that sure how they formed - ours looks like a piece of plastic, I am bringing it home as a souvenir.
After a breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon we drove on; the road follows the path of the Tsauchap river between the enormous dunes, the river used to flow to the sea but about 900 years ago it was blocked by the dunes and now ends in several lakes amongst the dunes. The river runs for about 6 weeks in February when water comes down from the inland mountains and fills the lakes, but now the lakes are dry and white with dead trees sitting in them. We walked through the desert from 5km to the largest of the lakes Sossus (the vlei means lake in the local language). We found several lizards amongst the small shrubs, loads of beautiful and very fast beetles and an evil looking spiny plant that produces desert melons that are a useful source of water for animals. The area is dotted with huge Camelthorn trees that have 10cm curved bean pods that are a useful food source for cattle and that make a wonderful crunching sound underfoot; the local tribes also use them as ankle bracelets when they dance as the seeds shake around in the pod sounding like maracas. It was hard going across the sand and when we finally reached the dried up river bed it was a real relief to walk on the dry clay even though it often broke underfoot. Over a final dune and there was the sparkling white expanse of the lake with a sprinkling of ghost trees and the Big Dada dune to the left and the Big Mama to the right (the two highest dunes in the area). We sat and drank and contemplated the scene for a while and then headed back to a small track where we could get a lift back to our truck, loads of small birds came to see us and we sprinkled a few crumbs from a breakfast bar for them to eat just as we left. We climbed into a passing small truck and turned back to look where we had been sitting under the shade of a tree and there was a jackal chasing away the birds and eating the crumbs. He must have been hidden right close to where we had been sitting but we didn't have a clue; everything is so well adapted and camouflaged around here.
When we returned Jason had prepared lunch for us and we sat with our table clothed table and our crockery and cutlery and ate like kings, our hand washing bowl became a very popular birdbath with many of the small birds in the area so we were entertained by their antics as we ate.
We returned along the same road to the gate house where we had entered the park, this time the dunes were yellow (they only glow red when the sun is low in the sky), and dune 45 looked tiny compared to some of the bigger monsters we had seen and yet we had failed to fully climb even that! At the gate house we took a small detour to visit the Sesriem Canyon, the course of the Tsauchap river. It is an amazing place cut through conglomerate, littered with elephant skin stones and cool and shady down below. The canyon was formed about a million years ago, the river now doesn't get more than a metre deep. As we walked in the canyon there were some small pools of green stinky water left over from the flow in February / March, you could see by the mud rings around them how they were shrinking fast. You couldn't see into the water but Celso decided to investigate with a stick and we found some fairly large (about a foot long) fish in the water; not that we ever saw a whole one, just the splashes and sometimes a fin; we assume they must be the type that lay eggs that can remain dormant in the mud until the next time the river flows and that these fellows will soon meet their demise.
We returned to our camp, stopping to see the various birds and animals along the way, in time for a nice cup of tea followed by a well needed luke warm shower to remove some of the sand, but the water was too cold to even contemplate washing our hair so we are all a bit gritty! Jason had whipped up yet another triumphant dish of fish, rice and vegetables and then we all went to bed - pooped!

Thursday 10th
Today involved a lot of driving interspersed with stops to try to photograph some of the many animals we saw. They are so shy when you slow down the vehicle but if you drive past they just sit and stare at you, very frustrating! We saw several troops of baboons, especially as we got close to Windhoek again; they sit on the rocks with the hands on their knees propping up their chins - a bit like The Thinker, they look so humanlike! We also saw Eland, Oryx, Klipspringers (a type of mountain antelope that seem to spring from one rock to another using all four feet at the same time), Springboks, Roller birds, Chanting Goshawks, a Kite and many other small birds. We arrived in Windhoek and had a 2 hour break to eat and change money, then we were off again Eastwards towards the Botswana border. The truck decided to break down just as we were on the outskirts of Windhoek - more luck for us as it only took about half an hour for the company mechanic to reach us; imagine if we had been back at Sossusvlei, we'd have been waiting for hours. Anyway the gear box had lost a bolt as so it was a quick fix to replace it and only an hour late we were on our way again. After about 3 hours, having seen masses of Warthogs on the edge of the road, we arrived at a campsite and set up our tents just before the light went. Jason, of course, whipped up another amazing meal and we gorged ourselves as the night got colder and colder. In fact this was the coldest night yet.