Ian's Day
After yesterday’s problems with lack of information from the “friendly” (not) staff at Sossusvlei reception, we should have known....
We got up before 5am in order to be at the gate by opening time to drive the 65km to the 2-wheel-drive car park before
taking the 4-wheel-drive sand track to Sossusvlei– dawn viewings being advertised as a “must”. We quickly calculated that at the speed limit in force in the park it would be impossible for anyone to actually get to the vlei in time for dawn. This explained why so many cars seemed to be travelling a tad over the 60kph limit! As we only travel at 70kph max anyway, we virtuously rolled on at the legal limit and watched the dawn break some 10km away from the start of the sand track. When we got there, a sign indicated that it was for 4wd only – that’s ok as that’s exactly what we are...off we go. The sand was deep and soft, the Mog slowed in 5th gear to a crawl, putting it into 3rd resulted in a slow but very positive forward motion which we kept up for most of the 5km to the 4wd car park – until one of the park’s shuttle drivers in a Landrover came the other way and warned us“that lorries aren’t allowed – you’ll be fined if you continue”. A quick debate and we did a U-turn in the sand and returned to the 2wd carpark muttering oaths about the repeated lack of any information provided by the park. We therefore had to take the shuttle (evidently at additional cost...) – it dumped us at the 4wd carpark with a general indication of “Dead Vlei that way, Sossusvlei that way”. The driver did give us one valuable piece of advice – go to Dead Vlei first before it gets hot. This we did – initially climbing the ridge of a rather large, very red sand dune.
As we climbed the wind increased until it was whipping the sand from the spine of the ridge from beneath our feet. Sue didn’t feel at all comfortable so we took the short cut to the bottom – down the lee side of the dune straight to the surface of the Dead Vlei itself. The Dead Vlei is basically a salt pan surrounded by dunes with dead trees dotted around – it seems to have been once a pool of water where trees could thrive, but at some point has dried up – however (and this seems to be a recurrent theme in Africa so far) – no information of any kind to explain what is being seen was available. Having photographed many of the photogenic dead trees, we decided that as the heat (and wind) was rising, we would head for Sossuslvlei – we headed off across another mini Vlei in the general direction of the carpark –having crossed the vlei and another two small dunes we found no carpark, no Sossusvlei – lost in the Namib! Watching the shadows we guessed which direction to take, crossed a large dune and there was the carpark. Ouff! Only problem was that on reaching the car park (you’ve guessed it!) – no indication at all which direction to take to find Sossuslvlei (the driver had vaguely waved his hand“over there” and indicated “500 metres”. The wind had increased, blowing fine sand everywhere, the sun was now beating down, the air feeling like a dessicator. We didn’t want to repeat the last episode – luckily we found another driver who indicated how to find Sossusvlei – we headed off following wheel tracks through fine sand, heavy going – until finally we found it – a pool
of water at the foot of a dune. Impressive, but Dead Vlei was certainly more so.
Sue spotted a few more birds on and around the pool, but by this time we had
just about had enough so decided that it was time to leave by taking the shuttle
back to where we had parked the Mog. Our conclusions on Sossusvlei were that
although it is a very good experience, the effort to reach it and the total lack of any information, help or greetings (apart from in relieving us of money) from any of the staff made the experience less than worthwhile.
We drove the 65km back to the campsite, filled up with fuel and left for a campsite at Solitaire on the way to Walvis Bay/Swakopmund. Here we’ve met a good selection of other travellers who have shared their recent experiences of Namibia – it seems that blown tyres are extremely common nowadays in Namibia, that the Government isn’t funding road
repairs in Western Namibia and that therefore the roads are in a pitiful state. This explains what we’ve seen, and the vast number of tyre carcasses by the roadside. It also seems a little short-sighted as all of the tourist areas in Namibia are in the West – we’ve met a huge amount of foreign tourists struggling with the roads here, they will surely be telling people back home not to bother and to go somewhere else.... Anyway, we’ve got a Mog, so no change to our plans – except to build in extra time –lots of it!
After yesterday’s problems with lack of information from the “friendly” (not) staff at Sossusvlei reception, we should have known....
We got up before 5am in order to be at the gate by opening time to drive the 65km to the 2-wheel-drive car park before
taking the 4-wheel-drive sand track to Sossusvlei– dawn viewings being advertised as a “must”. We quickly calculated that at the speed limit in force in the park it would be impossible for anyone to actually get to the vlei in time for dawn. This explained why so many cars seemed to be travelling a tad over the 60kph limit! As we only travel at 70kph max anyway, we virtuously rolled on at the legal limit and watched the dawn break some 10km away from the start of the sand track. When we got there, a sign indicated that it was for 4wd only – that’s ok as that’s exactly what we are...off we go. The sand was deep and soft, the Mog slowed in 5th gear to a crawl, putting it into 3rd resulted in a slow but very positive forward motion which we kept up for most of the 5km to the 4wd car park – until one of the park’s shuttle drivers in a Landrover came the other way and warned us“that lorries aren’t allowed – you’ll be fined if you continue”. A quick debate and we did a U-turn in the sand and returned to the 2wd carpark muttering oaths about the repeated lack of any information provided by the park. We therefore had to take the shuttle (evidently at additional cost...) – it dumped us at the 4wd carpark with a general indication of “Dead Vlei that way, Sossusvlei that way”. The driver did give us one valuable piece of advice – go to Dead Vlei first before it gets hot. This we did – initially climbing the ridge of a rather large, very red sand dune.
As we climbed the wind increased until it was whipping the sand from the spine of the ridge from beneath our feet. Sue didn’t feel at all comfortable so we took the short cut to the bottom – down the lee side of the dune straight to the surface of the Dead Vlei itself. The Dead Vlei is basically a salt pan surrounded by dunes with dead trees dotted around – it seems to have been once a pool of water where trees could thrive, but at some point has dried up – however (and this seems to be a recurrent theme in Africa so far) – no information of any kind to explain what is being seen was available. Having photographed many of the photogenic dead trees, we decided that as the heat (and wind) was rising, we would head for Sossuslvlei – we headed off across another mini Vlei in the general direction of the carpark –having crossed the vlei and another two small dunes we found no carpark, no Sossusvlei – lost in the Namib! Watching the shadows we guessed which direction to take, crossed a large dune and there was the carpark. Ouff! Only problem was that on reaching the car park (you’ve guessed it!) – no indication at all which direction to take to find Sossuslvlei (the driver had vaguely waved his hand“over there” and indicated “500 metres”. The wind had increased, blowing fine sand everywhere, the sun was now beating down, the air feeling like a dessicator. We didn’t want to repeat the last episode – luckily we found another driver who indicated how to find Sossusvlei – we headed off following wheel tracks through fine sand, heavy going – until finally we found it – a pool
of water at the foot of a dune. Impressive, but Dead Vlei was certainly more so.
Sue spotted a few more birds on and around the pool, but by this time we had
just about had enough so decided that it was time to leave by taking the shuttle
back to where we had parked the Mog. Our conclusions on Sossusvlei were that
although it is a very good experience, the effort to reach it and the total lack of any information, help or greetings (apart from in relieving us of money) from any of the staff made the experience less than worthwhile.
We drove the 65km back to the campsite, filled up with fuel and left for a campsite at Solitaire on the way to Walvis Bay/Swakopmund. Here we’ve met a good selection of other travellers who have shared their recent experiences of Namibia – it seems that blown tyres are extremely common nowadays in Namibia, that the Government isn’t funding road
repairs in Western Namibia and that therefore the roads are in a pitiful state. This explains what we’ve seen, and the vast number of tyre carcasses by the roadside. It also seems a little short-sighted as all of the tourist areas in Namibia are in the West – we’ve met a huge amount of foreign tourists struggling with the roads here, they will surely be telling people back home not to bother and to go somewhere else.... Anyway, we’ve got a Mog, so no change to our plans – except to build in extra time –lots of it!