The Red Dunes of Sossusvlei 

Our final destination was Sossusvlei, a salt and clay pan surrounded by high red dunes, located in the southern part of the Namib Desert. Its a 300 kilometer drive from Sossusvlei and we came across fantastic scenery on the way.

A few miles away from Sossusvlei - in the middle-of-nowhere - there is a small, remote town called Solitaire. It is a large dot on the map, but its just a few buildings and a gas station run by a guy called Moose. Yet it is so atmospheric, so typical of a middle-of-nowhere stop in the desert, that its been the location for several film and advert scenes.

And believe it or not, but it seems that the best Apple Pie in all of Africa is located in this remote town.

We continued on to Sossusvlei and finally arrived at our lodge where we stayed in small huts. The accommodation was directly in the Sossusvlei National Park and had modern facilities. 

Next morning, we were curious to explore the surrounding area and Bastian wanted to drive into the dunes. After almost 10 days in Namibia, he felt confident about his driving skills and maneuvered the car through the soft sand.

However, there is a material risk to driving here: You will get stranded in a desert and have to wait for someone to rescue you, if you get stuck. I will never forget the look on the faces of all the stranded 4x4s that we passed by and I was glad that we made it out of it safely.

 

Sandboarding in Swakopmund 
Swakopmund is located directly at the coast and has a nice wind chill in the air. The town is small, but has lots of German influence. We found a bit of time to relax and recharge our batteries. Bastian was pushing hard to get some adventure arranged and booked a 'sandboarding tour' for the two of us. On a beautiful morning, we were picked up by our sandboarding instructor. We drove to a huge star-shaped dune located about 11km away from Swakopmund where the action takes place.

We were in a great mood and enjoyed the freedom of walking in the sand. Our instructor provided us with helmets and protection gear... Hm, I wondered why and started to get slightly nervous about it! We also carried simple wooden boards up the dune...

After walking all the way up, I needed to take a rest. Sitting on this massive dune was a great, but sliding down on a board with your head first sounded like a crazy stunt. 

We started with small dunes and then step by step took bigger and steeper ones. It was fast and I swallowed a lot of sand, but I have to say: It was so cool and we could not get enough! I really enjoyed it and I almost beat Bastian for the highest speed. Both of us were fearlessly sliding down at a tempo of over 70 km/h. Our instructor (all the way down) measured us with the help of a speed camera.

The next day, we were going South to Walvis Bay and arranged a 4x4 drive at Sandwich Harbor where giant sand dunes run straight into the ocean. Its creates a wonderful scenery!

Walking around in the sand was incredible. We were all by ourselves and had a fantastic picnic right in between the giant dunes. 

Meeting the Damara People

Damaraland is a scenic area in Namibia with its huge, untamed, ruggedly beautiful landscape. Its named after the Damara people which are presumed to be the original inhabitants of Namibia, speaking a 'click' language which is really fascinating to hear. 

After a few hundred kilometers on gravel road, our GPS told us to turn right towards our lodge. Apparently, it was right here, but Bastian and I couldn't see it. The only thing we saw was a mount of massive red-colored boulders. A moment later, a man appeared in the distance and waved us towards the boulders. We realized that THIS would be the accommodation for the night... 

The accommodation turned out to be really nice and we felt a little bit like the Flintstones in their stone houses. Despite the 40 degrees Celsius outside, the inside was not air-conditioned, but the stone walls provided a natural cooling effect and we had a good rest at night. 

After breakfast we met the Damara people in a village. They performed a traditional dance for the two of us. We also learned about their lives and it was really amazing to see how the people here were able to adapt and to survive the inconceivably tough conditions in Damaraland.

We had dinner at our lodge and enjoyed a sunset drink on top of the mount that represented out lodge. We had fun with the shadows on the boulders and Bastian tried to move some of them. 

That stone in particular was scary for me. It was pointing down to the stone houses and if it would have moved, some of the lodge would have been toast... 

Before leaving to Swakopmund, we stopped by the rock paintings which are engravings that bushman several thousand years ago drew in the rocks. The paintings indicated maps of the area with animals and waterholes and are still visible today. 

We left the gravel roads behind and were ready for a little bit of civilization in Swakopmund at the east coast of Namibia with 40,000 inhabitants.