In Luderitz we took it easy, eating at the same Portuguese seafood restaurant two of the three nights, trip planning with the very good internet at our funky place. We had a two bed two bath place with a kitchen and living room, almost an entire floor of one of the oldest building in the town. It was nice to spread out and relax. Three nights is too long there though; in fact if we were to skip one place in Namibia, this would probably be it. In fact, the only “tourist” thing we did was to drive out to Diaz Point, which was bleak in the stiff winds and. But it might be worth a detour for the haircut, 100 Namibian dollars (about US $7).
Sossusvlei
We stayed at Desert Quiver Camp, associated with Sossusvlei Lodge, where we ate all of our meals. Food at the restaurant, which consisted of extensive buffets for both breakfast and dinner was very good, especially the grilled game option (ostrich, kudu, oryx, springbok).
We got up at crack of dawn, so that we can see the dunes in morning light. This meant breakfast at 6am. There were two cars ahead of us that stopped at the park gate, as we turned in to Sossusvlei Lodge for breakfast. When we were finished with our breakfast, those two cars were still parked at the same spot, as the gate does not open until sunrise. There are no proper words to describe how beautiful the morning light plays on the red dunes. Wind started to pick up as well, kicking up the sand in fine mist like layer, which made it look ethereal. We climbed Big Daddy, which was tough going, as our bare legs were being sandblasted by the stiff wind blowing sand across the top. There had been a line of people ahead of us as we were hiking. When we got to the top of the Dune, however, we found ourselves utterly alone. Where did all those people get to? I was a bit concerned about taking the direct route off the Dune, with thoughts of avalanches on snow flashing in my head. Eventually, though, we imitated others running down the face of the Dune and made it off the Dune in no time. Each step caused the foot to sink into the super soft sand and caused a deep trombone like of noise, as the sand gets compacted under our feet. The descent was exhilarating, and reminded us of perfect powder days on ski slopes. It was pretty amusing, though, to see how much sand accumulated in our sneakers when we finally took them off at the bottom of the Dune. We had descended onto Deadvlei, which is a salt pan with a grove of dead trees sticking out of it in an eerie/artsy fashion. I spent the rest of the afternoon napping.
