Month: April 2023

 

 

 

The featured image looks north/ish from Kulala Desert Lodge to the nearest dune on the edge of the Namib Desert’s “sand sea”.

The sand sea’s most easily accessed portion is in this area, which includes Sossusvlei.

As you can see, the dunes are not “lifeless”; as well as being huge and exquisitely formed, their core structure is very much more stable than most people imagine.

The above photo was taken at 7.09 pm on 21 November 2022, 18 minutes before sunset.

Two hours earlier, when looking from the same vantage point, this dune was invisible.

The next photo was taken ten minutes later, looking northwest.

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6.55 pm, 21 November 2022, 32 minutes before sunset:  all 10 of us – 8 “punters”, plus tour leader and nature guide/driver – are standing on the deck in front of Kulala Desert Lodge.

Individually and collectively, we are agog.

We have a 360 degree field of view.

Wherever we look, the landscape’s apparent nature is in flux – its face/s changing dramatically, second by second.

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At 5.08 pm on 21 November 2022 “our” Namib sandstorm was vanishing, as quickly as it had materialised, circa one hour earlier.

When I took the featured image, all visibly-flying sand was some kilometres east of us, as we stood on the deck of “our” cottage-tent.

Kulala Desert Lodge is around 40 kilometres east north east of Sossusvlei, and less than 2 ks from the southern edge of the Namib’s “sand sea” – the dune field in which Sossusvlei is the tourist “magnet”.

(Sossusvlei – our destination the following morning – has to be seen to be believed. It will, eventually, have its own series of posts. Suffice for now, what transpired on 21.11.2022 had a very beneficial impact on our 22.11.2022 experience)

For the next ninety minutes we relaxed in our quasi-tent’s interior;  inevitably, it had been infiltrated by a generous dose of very fine, reddish sand – smoothly luxurious bedding had become decidedly gritty.

Then, suddenly, my ears and nose suggested something very unlikely was happening…

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Just before 5 pm we arrived at Kulala Desert Lodge.

At this point the sandstorm had raged for circa 45 minutes.

We rushed out of “our” vehicle, and into the Lodge’s hub/reception/lounge.

From there, the nearest of the nearby sand sea’s huge dunes is usually spectacularly evident.

At this moment, it was invisible.

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When I took the featured image, we were most of the way through a long drive from Swakopmund, on the Atlantic Ocean, to the Kulala Desert Lodge, conveniently near to Sossusvlei.

The dunes around Sossusvlei defy belief; inevitably, they are the “big attraction” in the Namib’s “sand sea”.

As you can see, not all of the world’s oldest desert is “sand sea”.

As you can also see, at 4.00 pm on 21 November 2022, visibility was excellent, the wind moderate.

We had no idea how rapidly/dramatically those conditions would change…

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