3 DAYS SOSSUSVLEI SAFARI (LODGING)

Standing atop one of the tallest dunes on Earth, it felt as though the sand beneath our feet stretched into infinity. With its red dunes rolling endlessly into the ocean, the Namib is the oldest desert in the world — a sea of silica stretching along Namibia’s entire Atlantic coast.

It’s fascinating shape and accessibility makes it the most photographed dune in the world. The dunes of the Namib Desert were created by sand carried by the wind from the coast of Namibia. The sand here is 5 million years old and is red in colour due to its iron oxide conten.

Dune 45 at 170 meters tall is the most well-known dune chosen to climb by those who visit the Sossusvlei area. This relatively ‘easy’ climb takes anywhere from 40 minutes to one hour to reach the top, for most people.

These dunes are the tallest in the world, in places rising above the desert floor more than 300 meters (almost 1000 feet).

Big Daddy is the tallest dune in the Sossusvlei area. This magnificent dune is situated between Sossusvlei and Deadvlei and at 325 meters it dwarfs the other dunes.

Some 900 years ago the climate dried up, and dunes cut off Dead Vlei from the river. It became too dry in Dead Vlei for the trees to even decompose. They simply scorched black in the sun, monuments to their own destruction. The trees, now over 1000 years old, form a barren forest.

The trees are estimated to be approximately 900 years old, however they have not decomposed due to the dry climate. Deadvlei is a paradise for photographers as the contrast between the pitch-black trees and bleached-white pans, and the rusty-red dunes and deep blue sky make for incredible images.

The climate is dry in Deadvlei that some trees have not decomposed, and they are somewhere around 1000 years old too.

The salt pan of Sossusvlei was created when the the 150 kilometer Tsauchab river silted over time. It is believed that the Tsauchab once flowed from the Naukluft mountains to around 50 km off the Atlantic Ocean. Eventually, the giant dunes blocked the flow of the river and ended Tsauchab river.