Swakopmund to Sossusvlei
October 24, 2000
Drive to Sossusvlei
Sore!
That's how I felt in the morning: my day of sandboarding and ATVing had caught up to
me. Felt better after a quick shower and another breakfast at Anton's, though.
After getting packed and heading down to the truck, we had some good news and bad news.
The good news was that my copy of the sandboarding tape was ready before we left
(early, as usual). The bad news was that Joanne would not be coming with us!
She'd got a little tired of the camping, and was going to take the bus to Windhoek and
meet us at the hotel.
And then there were eight.
After another breakfast at Anton's, we had about an hour to do some quick shopping: I
picked up a few postcards and interesting knick-knacks from one of the local stores
(nothing too heavy!). After that, after gathering up a hung-over Bentsen, we headed
out.
Squirt Guns!
We made a short stop at Walvis bay for a bit of a rest: there were lots of 
flamingos there (probably some of the ones I'd seen on my
overflight). Curiously (at least to me) they were mostly white! I hadn't
realized that flamingos varied in color that much.
On our first stop for groceries I noticed Susanna buying a squirt gun. Sensing
trouble, I got another one for our side (balance of power and all that). Jan ended
up having the most fun: all through our trip to Sossusvlei we had squirt gun wars! A
nice distraction from the heat!
We made one stop befor Sossusvlei at a desolate, dry moonscape in the Namib-Naukluft National Park. Fascinating
landscape: layers of rock all twisted and uplifted. Barely any green around, except
for here and there in small valleys between the mountains. Hard to believe anything
could live there!
Sossusvlei Lodge
When we got to our campsite that day, it was too hot to do anything much but relax in
the pool (which was opaque with sand and dirt, but by that point we didn't care much about
the color). After a shower (to wash off the dirt from the pool!) and dinner, I got a
few nice shots of the sunset over the dunes.
Susanna warned us to watch out for the black scorpions which roamed the area
(unfortunately I didn't see any: drat!).
Before bed, the group of us talked in the little watering hole (thought I'd say
"bar" again, didn't you?) down by the pool: we talked about the tour so far and
what we would be doing next. Unfortuantely, what we would be doing next was more
dune climbing: my muscles already ached at the thought!
