August 28-30: Sossusvlei

After our brief visit to the Naukluft Mountains, we headed east to the true desert of the Namib and the famous Sossusvlei salt pan and Namib Sand Sea.

Sossusvlei is perhaps the most iconic place in Namibia, and one of the top few tourist destinations – for very good reason! Sossusvlei is one of those salt pan formations that I have talked about on multiple occasions in this blog, formed by ephemeral flooding of the Tsauchab River and the accumlation of salts in the clay topsoil, although water from the River rarely reaches the pans today. The Pan itself, however, is not the real star of this Park in my opinion, but rather it is the striking towering red dunes, purported to be some of the highest in the world, that captures the imagination. And it’s not just one pan, but several, including the famous Deadvlei Pan with its ancient, fossilized trees. The skeleton trees in Deadvlei died around 900 years ago when the climate changed and the river bed shifted course, leaving the pans dried up most of the time, except for the ephemeral seasonal rains. Because of the exceptionally dry climate, the skeleton trees have persisted for 9 centuries, thwarting any attempts to decompose them. 

Much to our great surprise and delight, our Park campsite was rather OK, or as our resident PolyAnna (yes, I am referring to Ki) exclaimed, “it was awesome; we had a site on the edge of the campground, no really close neighbors, lots of animal tracks right in our campsite, and two big piles of gemsbok poop right in our site, what more could we ask for”. Sherry, rest assured that Ki is a suitable substitute for you in this regard. Here’s a pic:

We had a couple of epic days in the dunes. The highlight of the first day was climbing “Big Daddy” dune, said to be the tallest dune in the Sossusvlei area at ~1066 feet above the Pan, and overlooking Deadvlei Pan. Of course, we shared the climb with several dozen other tourists also seeking the view from the top, but it was well worth the exertion and sharing the views. And the run down the slope of the dune was truly exhilarating, despite the 5 pounds of sand that we collected in our shoes. The skeleton trees, or “fossilized” trees as they refer to them here, of Deadvlei Pan were also quite beautiful, more so had we been there during the early morning hours and the sun angle low to cast shadows (perhaps next year Mark and Kirsten!).

The highlight of the second day was a hike up “Big Mamma” dune overlooking Sossusvlei itself. Big Mamma is “only” ~656 feet above the Pan, but what was epic about this hike was the strenuous “trail” breaking climb up the long crested ridge to the top – much more strenuous than climbing all the way to the top of Big Daddy on other’s footprints – and the ultimate solitude of being atop the dune by ourselves for the duration. It was the highlight of the visit for us to be sure.

We also did a short hike in Sesrium Canyon in the headwaters of the Tsauchaub River, which to our surprise was a slot canyon carved through hundred(s) of feet on conglomerate material – essentially compressed mud and rounded cobbles of varying sizes all packed together in layers of varying thicknesses. It was easy to imagine a river flowing through the canyon and depositing material for eons after eons.

OK, for your visual entertainment I have created a slide show of our wonderings AND a composite video. Take your pick, or if you are really committed, watch both. Hope you enjoy.

Here’s the slide show. Note, for you serious wildlife biologists, the dune beetle in the slide is a Tenebrionid beetle (Tok-Tokkies) and the grasshopper-looking insect is, well, a grasshopper:

Sossusvlei slide show (3.5 minutes)

Here’s the video composite. Note, I switched from landscape to portait mode in the middle of filming in Sessrium Canyon at the end of the video and I could not figure out how to merge the landscape and portrait segments, so you’ll have to turn your head on its side to watch the last couple of minutes. Sorry for the neck bending, but lesson learned – send me your hospital bill if :

Sossusvlei video composite (10.5 minutes)

We are off to the Khalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP) for an extended safari through this part of the Khalahari Desert. Don’t panic if you don’t hear from me for several days at a time, as we will be very remote at times and without cell service.

New Species:

• Gray tit