Day 141 – the red dunes of Sossuvlei
We headed off on our morning activity at 6:30am. Today we saw the red sand dunes in Sossuvlei. These are world famous. These dunes are red because the sand, which has blown in from the ocean, contains iron, which becomes iron oxide. The presence of iron oxide on Mars is also what makes it appear red. The dunes shift from time to time due to the strong winds, but others are for the most part rooted in place as surprisingly there is grass growing on them.
This place is a very popular tourist destination and it actually had a paved road from the entrance to an area nearby the dead trees. At a certain point, any car that is not 4x4 has to park, because the last ¼ mile is all sand.
We hiked a short way up one of the most famous dunes, dune 45. We did not hike the largest dune, Big Daddy. We also hiked a kilometre up and down dunes to view the dead trees of Sossuvlei. These trees are reportedly 1,000 years old, but are still in place because they are protected from the wind and there are no insects present to eat them. S even touched one of them. The wood felt very brittle and almost hollow.
Obbie then drove us a short way to a picnic spot so we could have morning tea, which thankfully turned out to be snacks and beer. We then headed back to Little Kualala for lunch. Lunch was a baked halloumi starter, followed by summer rolls (for S) and pork with sweet and sour sauce (for J). J found the lunch a bit heavy. All of the sudden, it started to pour rain. This was unique as it almost never rains here. Two of the ladies ran out and started dancing and singing in the rain, as it is such a rare occurrence.
Our afternoon activity was driving to see cave paintings. They were painted by the Kalahari bushmen 300-400 years ago and were used as part of the communication system. On the way, we managed to see mountain zebras, which are really just common zebras that are very shy and have adapted to living on mountains. We also saw two black-backed jackals. Obbie found a nice spot for us to watch the sunset and drink our sundowners. J’s favourite part of the sundowners was the Namibian biltong and, of course, the stunning views.
We headed back to the lodge for dinner. Despite having hiked through sand dunes and up and down rocks to get to the cave paintings, S managed to trip over the entrance step to the lodge and do a faceplant. J didn’t realise what was happening as she was getting out of the Landcruiser after S. He handled it like a trooper and managed to walk back to the room. After the shock wore off, he realised he had re-injured his right elbow, which had taken the brunt of the fall. We headed back to the lodge so S could ice his elbow. Selma and the team took good care of him and immediately handed him a whiskey for the pain. We had a nice chat with the Norwegian/French family again. The 7-year-old was telling us about how he felt about the family’s imminent move from Zimbabwe to Washington, DC. He is really going to miss “the people who work for them”. Meanwhile, the 4-year-old was busy playing with a grasshopper. He decided it would be fun to sneak up behind J and rub the grasshopper’s legs against J’s neck. J didn’t find it funny, but everyone else in the place broke out laughing. To add insult to injury, the 4-year-old then put the grasshopper down on J’s seat on the couch. Selma had to come and remove it, to rescue J from the grasshopper. The family then went off for their night-time walk and we had dinner. They were accompanied by a reptile expert who is doing some research on horned adders and other reptiles.
