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…
We walked out onto the deck, where our eyes and skin confirmed we had just become members of a very small “club”: humans upon whom rain has fallen in the world’s oldest desert.
Less than fifteen minutes later, “our” particular shower had moved on.
We then walked over to the large deck that juts out from the Lodge’s hub, and affords jaw-dropping views across the full 360 degrees.
As you will see in this little series’ remaining chapters, the next 45 minutes delivered an extraordinary, highly dynamic and entirely natural “light show”.