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Sink your feet into one of the oldest deserts in the world, for at least 55 million years the Namib area has been dry and desolate and yet is home to countless fascinating animals and plants. Stay in the luxury of comfortable lodges in this desert region and explore the secrets of the Namib for yourself.
The largest town in the Namib Desert region is Sossusvlei or as the original inhabitants had it, the ‘gathering place of water’. Amongst the dunes (some of the highest in the world) there is a clay pan, formed by water in the distant past that fills up very occasionally when there is enough rainfall. Normally Sossusvlei is completely dry. What keeps people coming back to the Namib region is the staggering beauty of the dunes found in this area. It might be hard work to get to the top of a dune, some of them are 450m high, but once you are there you will be rewarded with amazing views of the red sand sea.
Sossusvlei Dunes
One of Namibia’s most spectacular sights, the red dunes of this arid Namib region tower several hundred feet above the valley floor. The dunes are dynamic, constantly shifting with the winds and therefore constantly changing their shapes and dimensions. The best time to view them is at sunrise and sunset because the shadows add an additional dimension to the sight. This region is home to the famous Star Dunes with their multiple ridges created by multi-directional winds.
Visit the Dead Vlei
Mud from the rivers piles up at Sossusvlei and so every 1000 years or so the river needs to find a new path through the next row of dunes. Because of the lack of water in the old channels, the trees obviously died but because of the lack of moisture in the air, they could not decompose normally and so have been nearly perfectly preserved for centuries in the ‘Dead Vlei’.
