This is the leg where things almost went very very wrong.
We woke on day 8 at 6.30am, showered and dressed quickly before checking out at 7am, leaving our bags at reception and heading straight into the Sossusvlei National Park. This was a day I had been thinking about for weeks; we were going into the Namibian Sand Sea to find the area known as Dead Vlei (meaning Dead Marsh). Dead Vlei is a white flat salty basin nestled deep into the giant red sand dunes where you can see trees that lived 900 years ago, and are only still standing because of the arid conditions. If there had been more moisture in the area, they would have rotten away. The trees are so dark in colour, and contrast beautifully against the blue of the sky, the red of the sand and the white of the dry basin floor. I had seen so many photos of this place that had inspired me and I planned to spend a good hour here taking photos and ticking this incredible place off my bucket list.
Despite its stark beauty, this area of Namibia cannot be underestimated. We were visiting at a time of year where the temperatures can really soar and having checked the forecast we knew that the weather was predicted to be very hot and given the long walk through the desert, we had to set off early to avoid the heat. So at 7am, we jumped in the truck and headed West, though the National Park gate.
It is a 60km drive, but the road is paved (a novelty for us) and the scenery is beautiful, with the edge of the sand sea getting ever closer. At that time in the morning, the light hitting the dunes was incredible and animals were still active, so we had the pleasure of seeing some Oryx walking around.
We arrived at the 1st car park at about 8am. The sun was already hot and I was a little anxious to get going, but we were still several kms from the hike point. All cars are encouraged to stop at this car park rather than attempting to drive on to the 2nd car park which is much further into the sand dunes and the sand road is very soft and tricky to drive; we saw that a number of people had attempted it and gotten stuck. One car had smashed the front off its bumper so it's really not recommended to go beyond Car park 1. Instead you can pay a small fee for a transfer by one of the park rangers, which is what we did, but we had to wait for a ranger to arrive. By 8.45am we had transferred to carpark 2 and hopped off the truck ready to hike across the sand.
Walking south away from the car park, all you can see is sand dunes with no sign of Dead Vlei, but the route is marked by white posts every 25m, so even if no-one is around, you can figure out which way to go. The sun was beating down already, but we were hydrated and it was the start of the day so we were full of energy and good to go. The research suggested that the distance was about 1km there and 1km back so we headed out determined (Gaz tracked the distance on his fitness tracker and it was actually 1.5km there so 3km round trip).
The sand was very soft which I thought it might be, and we quickly realised that it was getting hotter quicker than expected so this was going to be a hard walk for me. Walking on soft sand is hard for anyone at the best of times, but the sand was reflecting the heat making the walk tougher. We took 4 litres of water with us and used it all on the walk. By 9.30am we had reached Dead Vlei but I was struggling. I was unfortunately showing clear signs of heat exhaustion, so just as we arrived I knew we had to turn back. I wasn't going to be able to spend time taking photos as I had planned. I was so disappointed but sometimes you feel so unwell, the decision is an easy one.
With my body shivering and stomach cramping I knew I had to get my body temperature down but we were nearly a mile from the nearest shade in the car park. Gaz started pouring water over my head scarf and whole body so that the evaporation would help to cool me down. This actually really helped; for a few minutes I would feel the benefit, before needing to have the process repeated. Nearing the end of the walk, we literally had to just focus on the next white marker as a target because I was mentally exhausted.
We got to the rocky plateau near the car park, and the relief of not being on the hot sand and having the heat reflected back was immediate. Gaz insisted that I sit on a rock and stood in front of me so my head was out of the sun. Just stopping like this for a few minutes helped me get my focus back and we then walked back to the car park without concern and clustered under a large tree with about 50 other people, all waiting to be transferred back to their cars.
There were a few people really suffering and clearly hadn't brought enough water with them. As we sat, a girl walked out of the desert and basically collapsed to the ground exhausted. She didn't appear to have any water with her and I offered her the last bit of ours, which she refused saying that her friend had the water. I asked where her friend was, and she just pointed to the desert. I offered again but she said no - I think simply out of politeness. Can I just say to you as a reader, if you clearly need water, NEVER be polite, just ask for it. There is a time and a place for being polite, and being in need of hydration is not one of them.
After 10 minutes sat in the shade I felt back to normal and started to feel disappointed again about having driven all that way, come so far, endured the heat and didn't come away with the photos I desperately wanted, but as I said before when you know you've reached your limit, it's time to reprioritise. Without being dramatic about it, without Gaz I genuinely don't know how I would have made it back. I'm a big person, very overweight and my body struggles to cool itself, so I think I have to accept that not all environments are going to be easy for me to be in.
On the transfer back at about 10.30am, I sat with the park ranger in the truck and he told me that people were collapsing in Dead Vlei and they were having to drive into the dunes to rescue them. I asked him what the temperature was and it was 45C. This made me realise how extreme the conditions were and it wasn't even lunchtime! This place is mad. My advice to anyone that doesn't cope well in the heat, or isn't uber fit, is to plan when you come here. Come at a time of year where the temperatures are a lot kinder to you, and come at dawn - the light will be pretty cool too at that time of day.
Whilst I didn't walk away with the classic photograph treasures that others will have, I was able to get some great shots of the surrounding landscape and as we drove out of Sossusvlei, I captured some lovely dead trees on our route, so those will serve as a reminder of this day.
We headed back to pick up our bags from our Sesriem accommodation and then set off towards our destination for the day. It wasn't long before we left the paved road behind again and turned North onto the rough roads we had been used to. In fairness the C19 is not too bad, nothing like the hell of driving on the C27, no wonder it's known as a Tyre Killer! We only had a short journey so soon we pulled off the road, passed through the entry gate and drove the final 5km on a road with signs telling us to drive slowly because of wild tortoises. I was so excited a desperate to see one, but of course we weren't that lucky. Instead we saw a few large Oryx wandering around and they have such beautiful markings that it's always nice to see them.
We were staying in a permanent tent structure with an outside kitchen. It was really impressive and yeah we didn't have WiFi but we did have air con in the tent and it was built off a proper constructed bathroom with an amazing shower and plenty of space. We were so impressed and had a lovely afternoon having a cup of coffee and watching a sand storm roll in across the landscape.
We headed to the main building for dinner and while we were there the kitchen and wait staff came out to sing happy birthday to someone, and then stayed out in the restaurant singing and dancing to entertain everyone. They were clearly having such a good time that they kept starting yet another song. It seemed such an impromptu performance and I loved how much they were enjoying themselves.
When we headed back to the tent it was dark, so we sat outside with a cup of coffee and scanned the landscape with a torch to see if there was any wildlife about. We were soon joined by a bat eared fox sniffing around looking for food, so Gaz threw it a few
scraps of bread and salad vegetables and we had a fox for life it would seem. Eventually it began to rain and we said goodnight to Batty and headed inside. The next morning we had a while to kill before we had to check out so we had a leisurely breakfast outside before heading off to travel all the way back to Walvis Bay, our target that day.
It was a long and fairly uneventful journey, but we continued to benefit from Namibia's stunning landscapes and plentiful wildlife that we saw from the car. We pulled into Walvis Bay and set about finding our bed and breakfast accommodation for the night. It took a while but we did eventually find it. We pulled up outside on the main road but couldn't see a way to get in. There was a main gate to the driveway but no way to open it and no intercom.
On the wall outside there was a phone number so I called that and got hold of a guy who couldn't hear me or didn't speak much English, I'm not sure which. With no data I couldn't message the owner and we were stuck on the pavement. Eventually a woman came out of her house on the opposite side of the road and showed us to a side gate that we had missed. There was a doorbell there and we tried that - no joy. By this point Gaz was looking a bit cagey. When I assessed the situation, there was a lot of dog muck on the pavement by the place and the houses nearby didn't look to good, so added to the lack of welcome and the weird and difficult phone call I had when trying to speak to them to get them to let us in, Gaz's caginess was becoming contagious. And we've learned that if it feels wrong, maybe it's best to follow your gut, so we decided to head off and find somewhere else.
We had only been planning to stay in Walvis Bay because it was the first viable location to stay at the end of the C18, and only 30 minutes from Swakopmund which would make getting back to hand the car back in the morning easier. In the end we just drove to Swakopmund and found a place to stay there. And as luck would have it, it was close to the AVIS centre, so we dropped the car back that evening which meant Gaz could have a lay-in the next day and there was no more driving. It all worked out in the end, but meant our 10 day road trip actually ended on day 9.
What a 9 days though! We had travelled a long way, seen so much, and experienced the wilderness just as we had hoped. We drove a route that is not considered one of the popular ones, but we would recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who wants a bit of adventure. Yes we had some drama and some close calls I suppose, but that only made it more of an adventure. Sometimes you have to take the path less trodden and as long as you are prepared and make sensible decisions, you will have only good experiences. We will remember the fun we had, the drama of almost being stranded on the road, almost collapsing from heat exhaustion in the desert and the ever changing beautiful landscapes of Namibia forever.
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I think you guys are brave. Loved the empty diamond field houses. Surely a hoover and a lick of paint would have those houses doing B&B in a couple of weeks.