Today, I did not go to St. Barnabas to teach. Instead, we woke up early to leave for Sossusvlei. (pronounced sauce-us-flay). Sossusvlei is located in the southern part of the Namib Desert, in the Namib-Naukluft Park. It is a famous salt pan surrounded by the highest and oldest red sand dunes in the world. Sossusvlei comes from Nama and Afrikaans. Sossus comes from Nama and means “dead end” and vlei is the Afrikaans word for “marsh.” Therefore, Sossusvlei literally means “dead end marsh.”
On our way, we stopped in a small town outside Windhoek called Rehoboth, which was originally a “basters” town for colored people. Colored people are a mix between black Namibians and white Afrikaaners. Therefore, they are much lighter than black Namibians but much darker than whites.
After our stop in Rehoboth, we continued on for almost 5 hours on a dirt road toward Sossusvlei. Halfway there, we stopped for a picnic in Spreetshoogte (pronounced spreets-wachter). The Spreetshoogte mountain pass is the steepest in Namibia and descends about 1000 feet every 2 ½ miles. It is so steep that the road was made of bricks instead of being tarred with asphalt or being left as gravel. It was quite the adventure to drive down as we could smell our tires burning and we were burning ourselves as the air conditioning had to be shut off for this part of the drive.
In the late afternoon, we finally arrived outside Sossusvlei and set up camp at the Sesriem Campground. Luckily, it was actually a little bit overcast so we could quickly set up our tents under the acacia trees and jump in to the pool for a swim before our evening hike on our first “little” sand dune.
As we pulled up to Elim Dune, I was so blown away with the beauty of the scenery. The red dunes seemed to pop up out of nowhere in the middle of the African savanna or pan. The sand on the sand dunes is a rich, burnt orange or red color due to the high iron content in it. We found that when you drop a magnet in the sand, it will pull the iron filings out of the dune. It was pretty amazing. The red sand comes from the Orange River, which border South Africa and Namibia, and as time passes, the iron oxidizes (or rusts) and turns the sand an orange/red color. Tickey (our guide for Sossusvlei) also told us that you can tell how old a sand dune is by the color of it—the darker red the sand is, the older the dune is.
We climbed Elim Dune for about a half hour and watched the sun set as we sat on the top of the dune (trying to catch our breath.) I was in complete awe of the beauty, seeing the pink and orange fire sky set above the red and orange sand dune with the African savanna below us. It was also so great to talk with Tickey because he is so knowledgeable about the Namib Desert and the vegetation, plants and animals in that area.
Waiting for the sun to set on Elim Dune!
Group shot waiting for the sunset
Scobie, me and Tickey
Someone was trying to fight!
Yoga on the dunes
After the sun set, we headed back to our campsite to cook up some dinner before we fell asleep. I don’t think it ever got below 80 degrees Fahrenheit that night and it was absolutely miserable to fall asleep. Kelli, Tasha and I shared a tent in minimal clothing with minimal sleep. I never even touched my sleeping bag or pillow for the whole night. Way. Too. Hot.
Fun Facts:
- This January has been the hottest January in Namibia since 1962. This makes me feel a little better about being a hot, sweaty mess all the time.
- The Namib Desert sometimes has a light dusting of snow in the winter.
- Sociable Weavers (the bird with the large nest pictured in my last post) share their nests with wasps. The wasps benefit from the shelter of the birds’ nests and in return, the wasps sting the eyes of snakes that try to sneak in to the nests in search of bird eggs.
Sociable Weaver's nests can hold hundreds of birds.
Saturday 01.28.13
Today, we woke up well before the sun to get started on our hike to Sossusvlei. We woke up at 4:30 am and headed further in to the Namib Desert. The Namib Desert is the oldest desert in the world and is estimated to be between 80-130 million years old.
We began our day with a car ride to the outskirts of Sossusvlei where we jumped in to a 4x4 vehicle to bring us to the base of the dunes. There is no way you could ever reach the dunes without a 4x4 vehicle because the road we drove on was literally sand that surrounded us from the dunes. It was so soft and even with 4-wheel drive, I thought we were going to get stuck a couple times. The 4x4 dropped us off outside Deadvlei, which was the first hike we were going on. It was about a 3 km hike and once we reached Deadvlei, I was in awe. Deadvlei is a white clay pan where the ground is a very dry, cracked, light gray color. The clay pan was formed after rainfall, when the Tsauchab River flooded and it created temporary shallow pools where trees could grow. When the drought hit the area, sand dunes surrounded the area and blocked it off from the river. Therefore, the trees died and the trees in Deadvlei were basically remaining skeletons. They had minimal branches and were torched black from the hot African sun. These dead acacia trees are estimated to be anywhere from 400-900 years old and the wood does not decompose because it is so dry.
Deadvlei and the Acacia Trees
Group Photo
While standing in Deadvlei, we could see “Big Daddy” surrounding us. “Big Daddy” is 325 meters above ground and is the biggest sand dune in Sossusvlei, arguable the biggest dune in Namibia.
After our hike to Deadvlei, we began hiking “Big Mama” which is the second biggest dune after “Big Daddy.” It is 280 meters above the ground. Our hike to the top of the dune gave us a breath-taking view of Sossusvlei, the famous saltpan in the Namib Desert. At this point in our hike, it was still extremely early in the morning (around 8 or 9 am) and the sun was beginning to pick up. On our hike to the top, we saw animals such as ostriches, oryx, and the short-snouted lizard. It was amazing to see these animals survive in what looked like hundreds of mountains of sand with little plants and water. After we took in the view for a while, we took our tennis shoes off and ran down the front side of “Big Mama.” It was so much fun and felt as if we were jumping on the moon because our strides were almost 5-6 feet apart. It took us about 45 seconds to run down and well over an hour to hike up. 
Our hike on the way up
Chatting with Paula
Hiking Big Mama (I'm in the third group from the top with Suzy)
We made it to the top!
My lady and I getting ready to run down Big Mama
Running!...
and Running!
After our second hike of the day, it was about 10 am and we were ready to head back to camp. The heat of the day was already well over 100 degrees and we had been up for hours already! On our way back we stopped at Dune 45, which is the most photographed dune in the world because of the unique way it is shaped. It is about 80 meters tall and when we got there, we decided to hike up it. Why not? We had already done two and this one looked “little.”
Me at the base of Dune 45
Beautiful Acacia Tree
Don't mind me, just taking a break and playing in the sand with moths
Well before noon we were back at our campsite and we were trying to do everything we could to keep out of the direct sunlight. We went swimming at our campsite and after a tour of the Sesriem Canyon, we joined our professors at their luxurious lodge to take a dip in their pool. Sesriem translates in to “six belts” in Afrikaans and was named by the settlers who were returning from the Dorsland Trek and attached six belts of oryx hide to the top of the canyon in order to reach down and collect the water from the river. Sesriem is 1 km long and about 30 meters deep. It was a beautifully natural canyon that was carved by the Tsauchab River but is now dry. The canyon fills up with water during flash floods and serves as homes to birds and baboons. The temperature during our hike down the canyon was between 44-47 degrees Celsius, or 112-122 degrees Fahrenheit. It is probably the hottest weather I have ever experienced, and if you know me well, you know I am not a happy camper in extreme heat. So, by the end of the canyon hike, I was more than ready for a dip in the pool.
After Tickey and Scobie picked us up for dinner at our campsite, we were so ready to eat and head to bed. Days are long when you start them at 4:30 in the morning in 120-degree heat, so falling asleep was a little bit easier. Yet, I don’t think it was any cooler than the night before.
Sunset our last night there
- There are three types of dunes and the Namib Desert has two of them—the Transverse Dunes and the Star Dunes. Transverse Dunes have an arc-shaped sand ridge and are generally wider than they are long. They are formed by winds that blow in the same direction all the time. Transverse dunes have vegetation growing all the way to the top of the dune. Elim Dune, the first dune we hiked, was a Transverse Dune. Star Dunes are symmetrical and when they are seen from above, have many “arms” that make the sand pattern look like a star. They accumulate in areas with wind coming from multiple directions and they tend to grow upwards. Vegetation on the star dunes ends at the crest of the dune. “Big Mama” was a Star Dune.
- It floods about every 5-7 years in parts of the Namib Desert. This time last year, the Sossusvlei area was flooded from rain and when the PLU group came to hike Sossusvlei, it was extremely muddy. We didn’t have that problem.
- The Namib Desert gets between 7-45 millimeters of rain each year.
- Oryx can withstand temperatures up to 57 degrees Celsius, or 134.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
- The Sossusvlei area spans 3,200 square kilometers or 1,900 square miles.
- Winds in the Namib Desert can reach between 80-100 kilometers per hour or 50-62 mph.
- Ostriches can run at speeds up to 43 mph.
- Ostriches lay their eggs in sharp grasses to prevent other animals from finding them and eating them. Their egg is ten times heavier than a chicken egg and weighs about 3 pounds.
Kelli modeling with Ostrich Eggs
Sunday 01.27.13
Today, we woke up with the sun again and packed up camp to head home towards Windhoek. It’s amazing how much like home this city feels like. I actually have a sense of where I’m going and driving on the left side of the road is beginning to feel normal. That will be dangerous when we get back to the States!
When we got home, we went over to Edwin and Emmy Tjiramba’s house for a pool party and dinner. (Edwin is the person whose farm we went to in the first couple weeks in Namibia) There we celebrated Edwin’s birthday and played with his 5 kids and nieces and nephews in the pool. Jan and Paula made a delicious dinner with cheeseburgers, macaroni and cheese and a Greek salad. I love the Tjiramba family too much to say goodbye that night so we promised we would be coming back to his house for an American/Namibian dance party and to play with his adorable, hyper, loving children at least one more time.
My little Ms. Attitude, Dolly.
"Washing Machine!"
Edwin blowing out the candles on his disheveled birthday cake
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