Sossusvlei

After Swakopmund we followed the road South East into the Namib Naukluft Park.

About 5 km out of town the road turned to dirt and remained that way for the next few days and several hundred kilometers. But the conditions were good and the roads well marked so we had no problems in our Corolla.

The roads use a labeling system which makes it easy to identify which roads are passable with 2-wheel drive and which would require 4-wheel drive. We stayed on the 2-wheel drive roads as they were rough enough for our Corolla.

We spent a couple of nights in the Little Sossus Lodge which was a really amazing place. This was the slow season so the lodge was not all that full but they still cooked amazing food for us and treated us very well.

It was here that we enjoyed our first expansive nights in Africa surrounded by the sky, the sunsets, the scenery, and the wilderness. We also saw the Southern Cross (though it wasn't until later that we cross-referenced with other folks to make sure we had properly identified it).

Sitting outside of our little stone hut we were very excited to be where we were.

While in the Namib we explored around Sessriem and Sossusvlei, home to the iconic photos of Namibia and its orange dunes. We saw Springbok and Oryx, Ostriches and Jackyls - all from our car right along the roads.

We woke up an hour before dawn so that we could make the drive to the park entrance (and the lodge had breakfast waiting and a lunch packed for us). We got to the gate a little early and ended up waiting for a while. As soon as we were allowed in it was a mad dash through the valley to see the dunes as the sun rose.

We hiked around the dunes and took lots of photos.