SOSSUSVLEI

Sossusvlei is situated in the Namib Desert, the oldest desert in the world, which itself is part of the Namib Naukluft Park that stretches 400 km south of Walvis Bay, between the west coast and the escarpment that runs parallel more than 100 km inland. Its huge red dunes and flat valley floors make up the world-famous view of the Namib.

Sossusvlei means “the gathering place of water” in the local Nama language: oddly, in good years seasonal rains in the foothills of the Naukluft and Tsaris Mountains succeed in reaching the vleis, creating temporary lakes. The seemingly uniform red-gold sands have another name: the Sand Sea.

Rainfall at the coast averages dramatically less than 50 mm a year, and further inland it measures a paltry 50-100 mm annually. Despite this and the lack of vegetation, a surprisingly diverse array of insects, reptiles and rodents make their home here – surviving thanks in parts to the coastal fog that creeps up off the sea each dawn and penetrates up to 50 km inland. Larger desert-adapted wildlife such as ostrich, springbok, gemsbok, bat-eared fox and aardwolf, are found here, and a variety of birds include the aptly named dune lark, which is completely dependent on these sands and is endemic to the area.

DUNE 45, Possible the most photographed dune in the Sossusvlei area, it appears regularly on postcards, calendars and in pictures of the Namib. Many people think it is called Dune 45 because it is about 45 km from Sesriem, the dunes have been numbered by conservation staff and by coincidence it happens to be dune number 45 on the map.

Here, a multitude of old vehicle tracks occur, mostly parallel to the main road. Before and after the area was proclaimed as part of the Namib-Naukluft Park when there was no surfaced road, every visitor drove where he thought best, hence the scarred landscape. Now that the road has been completed, off-road driving has diminished dramatically. However, off-road driving still occurs, causing irreparable damage for many years.