Travel Journal to Namibia

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

This time, run-up to Sossusvlei!
Arrived at the gates of Siesriem, an entrance fee is required to continue our journey. But to tell the whole truth, we are ignored, no guard, gate open, we do not ask more questions than that and we go into the reserve.
After a sixty mile, stands the majestic dune 45!
We climb with difficulty, an hour to reach its summit.

Dune 45

But once again, spectacular scenery before us and it deserves! After being down for five minutes, we return the car to Sossusvlei.
Stop at the parking required, only the 4X4 we can continue. We do a little walk, to see with our own eyes, if this track is really impractical!
And indeed, for us, the remaining five kilometers will be on foot!
Not now, what will be tomorrow morning, for the moment still an offense, we expect the car park is empty for sleeping.

Sossusvlei

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

The roar of the 4x4 we wake up, it is seven o'clock in the morning and the day started badly.
Barely out of the car, a guard challenge us!
It is impossible to be here already, so we always slept on the premises and therefore not paid the entrance fee. In fact the plates are checked at the entrance to properly check that everyone has left.
Confuses small then, but we do not understand style and he gets tired.
So we are now, for dunes of Sossusvlei.
Before this, we must still traverse the five miles of trails, and of course on foot. Why pay for the shuttle, we do not hurry!
It took us an hour to get to our destination.
A bit tedious to walk through a foot of sand, but it can go, it is still cool.
We are leading our tour in the desert!
First surprise, we see a line of about thirty people climbed the nearest dune. They are all there, in single file.
It's not for us that, climb a dune, take pictures and go.
We want to be overwhelmed by the immensity of nothingness.
We leave the tourist area and enter the desert, after three quarter of an hour's walk, the more souls who live around us.
Four hours later and crossed several dunes, the desert is less hilly, over the huge dunes of departure!

Namib Desert

The heat is exhausting, we begin to not be consistent in terms of our sense of direction.
Must leave, but no way to rebuild all the dunes in the opposite direction, we're exhausted and we are running out of water.
We see the canyon below, and we decide that we will return that way.
It's hot, very hot! We are in the canyon, but we've lost every point of view we could say with certainty our way back!
For an hour we take the easy way.
But you have to go to the evidence we are lost!
We climb the highest dune, to enable us to identify a few. Now it's on all fours as we climb! The only thing we care is to return as quickly.
We have not eaten all day, we have more water and we are breathless.

Desert's Namibian

Phew, that was the last dune! In the distance we see the swarm of tourists.
It'll be easier now we have a benchmark, and all downhill!
The hike lasted six hours, and we have experienced the thrill of the infinite large, the experience is unforgettable.
But still five miles from a sandy track to go back to our car, and finally being able to drink our way. Easy after what we just experienced!
Not at all, we have broken legs, and it is a real furnace.
We no longer speak, we move like robots, cutting classes when we can.
Finally, we see the car!

After the hiking in Namib Desert

After regaining some strength, we leave the highest dunes in the world, for our next stop: Solitaire.
That's two hundred kilometers, an area ideal for a stopover well deserved rest.
Two three hours later, we arrive at Solitaire Country LodgeThe place is nice, we prélassons the rest of the day.

Solitaire country Lodge

Thursday, June 21, 2007