19th , 20th May: The great Namib desert

On the road again! Quite a long stretch from Swakop to the sand dunes at Sesriem - we'd been warned it might take 4-5 hrs but in fact it took us quite a lot longer on the awful grooved, pot-holed gravel roads in our little hatchback! Through some white desert nothngness, and then into the mountains through some beautiful (but slightly scary) mountain passes.

Arrived at sesriem campsite finally, set up our tent and went straight to the bar! First time we didn't feel we had to rush off animal spotting – nothing else to do but have a beer. Met a couple of people at the bar; an English guy called Peter who was riding a bike from England to Cape Town to raise money for malaria research (that's push bike not motor!). Blog at www.thebigafricacycle.com (we haven't checked it out yet) Our plan was to go to the big red dunes and sussusvlei the next day, so we organised to give him a lift to save him another 70 or so kms ride through sand.

We also met a former south african safari operator called Murray (being good aussies we instantly dubbed him Muzza) who had been living in Botswana and was on his way back overland to Cape Town. He offered to share his Braai with us (in aussie: a barby), and we were keen to try one since we'd been hearing about them since arriving. Delicious!! amazing marinated chicken, meat and corn on the cob done over a proper wood fire. Beat the baked beans we were going to have.

Next day Muzza drove Peter and us to the dunes as he had an AWD so it made more sense than our little hatchback. It made even more sense when we found out his car's name was bruce. Two aussie chicks in a station wagon called bruce, oh yeah.

Got to Dune 45 at around 6:30am to catch the sunrise and beat the daytime heat. Now for the climb. Hard going at first but then it got easier and it was definitely worth It when we saw the beautiful sunrise over the desert on the way up.

On to Deadvlei and Sossusvlei – the most famous parts of the park. We'd planned to walk the last few kms, but after starting off traipsing through soft sand in the hot sun we realised that wasn't going to happen, so managed to scam a cheap lift from one of the park staff. Deadlvlei is a pan vlei) where part of the waterway has been cut off by drifting dunes, so the trees there have been dead for 100s of years. It was an eery and interesting place.

Sunrise from the top of Dune 45

Deadvlei

The sun was getting hotter and hotter so we headed back for an afternoon swim and relax by the pool, then dinner (back to the tinned food).

21^st – back to Windhoek

Woke the next morning at about 1am, as our tent seemed about to blow away in a sand storm! Everything in the tent was getting covered in sand as our covers were open, and the corners of the tent were lifting right off the ground. We were thankful after all that our tent weighed the same as a small car, and wasn't one of the light-weight modern ones! Survived the night, and somehow managed to pack up in the morning with the sand still trying to carry off all our possessions, and jumped back into the car bleary eyed for the drive back to Windhoek.

Stayed our final night with Val and Ian again, and had a lovely dinner with two of their sons and their partners. Wonderful end to a great Namibian adventure.