Dead Vlei is an amazing sight to behold - its just one of those places that you feel chilled out in although the temperatures are incredibly hot. All around are sand dunes that seem alive and nearby are the famous dunes 17 and 45.
A lengthy drive to a small garage/bar/shop (Solitaire) for lunch on our oasis over land truck (http://www.oasisoverland.co.uk/) – a white lion rug, zebra and springbok heads adorned the walls in the shop. On to camp for a quick dip in the pool before squeezing into a pickup for a trip out to the dunes of Sossusvlei.
The landscape on the days drive is quite stony plains with more rocky outcrops – not the orange sandstone that we saw at Spitzkoppe, these are greyer and many formations have flat tops. We walked with an extremely informative guide out to Dead Vlei – a limestone pan which previously held water now dried up, the trees have died but they do not rot as the heat is so dry. Dead Vlei is 1.2km long and the trees 900 years old. A new sand dune is building across the Vlei and dividing it into two parts, burying the trees underneath it. We learnt so much from our guide, beetles which run 50kph across the hot sand, stand on top of the dunes to catch the morning fog in ridges on their shells and excrete a sunscreen which gives them a bluish tinge. Spiders which bury themselves in tunnels and the oryx which conserves energy by not running from it’s enemy – just waiting and then spearing the attacker with their long horns. We learnt more about the San people or “bushmen” so called because they would hunt by hiding behind bushes. They lived like animals killing infrequently and eating up to 10kg of meat at a time. People used to hunt bushmen. We stopped on the way back in the truck to see Dune 17 and then Dune 45. Dune 17 is often pictured with a Camel Thorn Tree in front – that’s actually 2km away, such is the effect of perception of distance in the desert.
Dead Vlei was the highlight for me this day, the distances were so misleading and it was such an eerie place to be but a real must when visiting Namibia - truly amazing! You've just gotta go if you're in Namibia
