Day 6
For day 6, I flew up to Windhoek, Namibia. The flight left Cape Town at noon rendering the rest of the day pretty useless. I was simply using Windhoek as an overnight spot for the long drive the next day.

Boarding the Air Namibia flight to Windhoek (pronounced Wind-hook).


They upgraded me to business class as a standby, which was nice even though the flight was only 2-hours.


Over the desert.


Landing in the 2nd most sparsely populated country on the planet.


I sat in line at the airport for an hour waiting for the employees at the sim card store to come back from "a relaxing break". Only in Africa does that kind of thing happen... I finally got to the hotel around 5:00 PM. I used points to splurge and stay at the Hilton which was super nice. They upgraded me to a Garden Suite which included access to the Executive Lounge (for dinner), but yes, I'm that important.

The Garden Suite upgrade at the Hilton. Someone also delivered a box of chocolates to my room a few minutes later.


My private balcony garden. Not the best place at the time considering it was raining and there was nearby construction. I walked up to the lounge and grabbed some dinner then sat around the room researching info for the next day.



Day 7
Have you ever heard of Namibia? Yes, Namibia, not Libya and not India. Most people haven't. It's fairly unknown to tourists but it's an up and coming adventure traveler destination, mostly for Europeans. Namibia is home to some awesome scenery and is a perfect place to rent an RV and drive around for a month or to just get away from everything, and I mean everything. My main goal though with my 3 days, was to visit the sand dunes of Sossusvlei, considering it's a bucket list destination for photographers. On top of that, my goal on this trip in general was to limit my time in major cities and try to get out and see the scenery, so this was a perfect place to do that.

The drive for today was going to be a long one. Most people I talked to said to tack on an extra 20% driving time to what Google Maps states or more if you stop for pictures often, which I do. That ended up fairly accurate. Namibia classifies their roads in certain ways. B roads are paved, usually only main roads in and out of the major cities like Windhoek, Walvis Bay and Luderitz. C roads are main gravel roads, which from my experience were in decent enough condition, although flooded in some parts. D roads are district roads. They aren't cared for nearly as much and can get pretty rough in some spots. Today's route took me down B1 for a while to C24 to C14 to C19, so most of my driving for the day was on pavement and generally decent gravel roads. The woman at the tourism office advised against taking the district roads through the mountain pass even though it's 1.5 hours shorter. I left the Hilton at 8:00 AM.


There was a Hertz office located in the Hilton which is where I picked up my truck, a newish semi-lifted 4x4 Toyota Hilux. I had booked a manual as there were no automatics available for selection, but I ended up with an auto anyways.


Once I got off B1 and on to gravel, people and cars became very scarce. I went at least an hour without seeing a single car or person.


The drive was actually sort of liberating. Nice to not sit in bumper to bumper traffic for once.


At the turn off for Klein Aub, about the 1/4 way point.


Doesn't look bad, but it was pretty deep. Would've certainly been an issue in a little eco car. Let alone the poor tires on an eco car would've been shredded after 6 hours on this gravel.


The land here is literally untouched. It's not like driving through the plains of the midwest in the U.S. with farms left and right; it's just simple, vast and open space with nothing.


You know it's barren when you get excited to see rocks.


A stop at the river.


At the C14 turn-off, the 2/3 way point.


Got out to stretch my legs at the C14 turn off.


Some more scenery on the drive.


Still driving along.


A stop in Solitaire for diesel. I'm glad the truck was a turbo-diesel since at least 3/5 times I stopped for gas, they were out of petrol.


Got to my "lodge" in Solitaire a few minutes after getting gas. Each unit is individual, which is nice. It's essentially a luxury tent.


Pretty basic amenities, but at least it included hot water. The place was unbearable during the day due to the heat, but it cools down to around 65 at night, so overnight it was fine since the place didn't have AC. No WiFi out here either, but at least you get a nice big stain on the rug.


I hopped in the car for the next one hour drive down to the dunes. I had the whole next day but I wanted to at least go down for sunset and scout out the area for tomorrow.

The view from my room.


On the way to Sossusvlei.


About half way I believe. Starting to look a bit more Mars like.


A lonesome tree.


When I got to Sossuvlei I checked in at the front office and bought my two-day permit. The rep there recommended I go visit Sesriem Canyon first, then Sossusvlei tomorrow. I decided to hit Sesriem Canyon first then do some simply location scouting and sunset shooting after that in the dunes.


I can't describe how quiet it was here. No insects, no people, no distant traffic noises and no wind. If you stopped walking and stood still, all you heard was the faint buzzing in your ears and your heartbeat.


Sesriem Canyon.


Made it to the dunes. The road from the main gate to the end (where Sossusvlei is actually located) is about 45 minutes at my speed (roughly double the speed limit) but at least the road is paved.


The dunes are significantly larger than I imagined.


Stretching my legs.


So surreal.


Unfortunately, since I wasn't staying at one of the two accommodation sites inside the park, I had to be out by sunset, meaning I missed most of the best light. I thought about just staying in and paying the fine, figuring the fine wasn't that much. Well, the fine is 1,000 NAD ($78 USD) and I wasn't willing to pay that. If you stay at the campsite (I didn't have a tent or camping equipment) or the in-park lodge (which looks awesome but was out of my budget) you get to enter the park one hour prior to sunrise and leave one hour after sunset, meaning as a photographer, you can be in the park for the day's best light.


Made it to the gate with 4 minutes to spare.


Driving back to my lodge now for dinner.


The mountains at sunset.


Another beautiful African sunset.


Dinner at the all inclusive lodge.



Day 8
I planned a full day at the dunes today. When I booked the lodge I was staying at, I knew it wasn't right next to the park, but I didn't realize it was an hour away. Since I made my plans so close in, I wasn't able to secure anything nearby, which left me with this lodge. Part of visiting Sossusvlei is being there for sunrise and sunset. That meant I was awake at 4:45 AM ready to drive the hour down to the dunes. Let me just tell you how sketchy it is driving a truck on super rough gravel roads in the pitch black with zero street lights and animals in the road.

The sunrise hot air balloon tours leaving.


Sunrise at the dunes.


About 45 minutes after entering the park I made it to the 2x4 parking for Sossusvlei. It's another 5km to the actual entrance which can only be reached by 4x4 or by the park provided 4x4 shuttle. Luckily, the Hilux had no issue with the deep and soft sand for those 5km. Once I got there I hiked the Big Daddy dune then essentially slid down the side of it into Deadvlei.

Starting to hike the Big Daddy Dune.


Way, way harder than it looks.


At the top looking back. All I was missing was that desert scarf you're all imagining me wearing.


It took me about 45 minutes to hike to the top of Big Daddy. Then I slid down the side of it, which is about 1,100 feet, taking maybe 1 minute. Wedged between the two dunes is Deadvlei, which is a clay pan that used to be where water would flood during rain. The trees that still stand have been dead for hundreds of years but haven't decayed due to the lack of moisture.


The sun popping up over Big Daddy.


Walking around Deadvlei.


Deadvlei.


Water flow.


This image is to give a sense of scale. I hiked to the top then 'slid' down from where the people are up there.


Looking back at Deadvlei.


This is actually Sossusvlei, although people refer to the whole park as Sossusvlei. Sossusvlei means "dead-end marsh" and is a dried salt and clay pan. Temperatures, per the Hilux, were hovering around 41C or 106F.


Sossusvlei and the dunes.


The Big Mama Dune at Sossusvlei. You can see someone hiking it (they're completely crazy doing that midday when it's 41C out) in the middle and a bit right.


The easier part of the sand I had to drive through. It was thick enough that I could at least stop here. I wouldn't dare do that about 300m further in.


Dunes, dunes and more dunes.


The landscape here is something out of this world.


Initially, I planned on staying at the dunes until sunset. I guess that was poor planning on my part, but I was exhausted by about 2 PM. I figured since I already shot them at sunset the day before and got sunrise today, that I'd be good. I stopped at the little restaurant located at the main gate for lunch. They had free WiFi, but it was downloading at 2.9kbs, about 10 times slower than dial up, so I didn't even bother.


On the drive back to the lodge where I hit the pool for an hour or so since the tent was scalding hot.


Back at the lodge, ready to go to dinner.


Sunset from my 'patio' at the lodge.


Some fried chicken for dinner. A pack (if that's what they call multiple Oryx) were hanging out about 200 feet in front of me.


A rather poor attempt at light painting the truck, but at least the stars and milky way came out. Too bad there were some clouds.



Day 9
Looking back, I should've given myself an extra day in Namibia as there were a few more things I would've liked to see. Oh well, guess I'll save them for next time. Day 9 was to be spent driving back to Windhoek and the airport then a flight back down to Cape Town for three more days. Originally, I was going to fly to Joburg and visit the Drakensberg Mountains but the weather forecast was poor, I couldn't find somewhere close to stay since it was a long holiday weekend and I already had a ton of driving on this trip. The Drakenbergs would've added about 6 more hours of driving round trip. Due to that, I chose to simply return to Cape Town. I wanted to cover Robben Island and visit the Vineyards but neither of those ended up working as the rental cars were sold out and it was windy, so the ferries were canceled.

I asked the owner of the lodge for a different way back to Windhoek. Unlike the tourism office, he recommended the district roads through the mountain pass going back. He said that clearance is important, but otherwise, it's no more difficult than the C roads and is much more scenic. Boy was he right.

Everything I read said to get gas every time you see a gas station as they don't always have gas at each one. On top of that, it can be 300-400km before you see your next one.


The drive back to the Windhoek Airport ended up taking me about 5 hours. Instead of heading south to Klein Aub and Rehoboth, I took the more direct route on the District roads through Namibgrens and Isabis. Other than those small towns (or collection of 3 houses and a cow), I didn't see a single car on the three district roads I used, so about 2.5 hours.


At one of the turn-offs.


The District road route involved a fairly steep mountain pass. Luckily it was paved on that portion, otherwise, we would've had some issues.


Driving along.


Part of the mountain pass. It was a lot steeper than it looks, just doesn't look bad since this was taken on the way up.


A good place to stop and rest for a few minutes.


It's funny to think that this is a main road.


Almost hit this guy as he was hanging out in the road just as I came to the top of a hill.


Still driving along.


I dropped the truck off with Hertz at the airport. No questions asked regarding the mud and dirt, even though the contract states that the vehicle can't be driven off road (not sure how that's possible in Namibia anyways). This is where things got interesting, though. British Airways had canceled their flight to Cape Town earlier in the day, so my flight to Cape Town was now full and I didn't get on due to that. Instead, I chose to list for Joburg making the last connection of the night to Cape Town. Of course, I get on the flight to Joburg and they announce that we're going to make an unscheduled stop in Walvis Bay to pick up more passengers #Africa . I ended up overnighting in Joburg because of that, but more on that later.


I booked a cheap and quick overnight at the Holiday Inn Johannesburg Airport. I didn't get there until almost midnight and Joburg isn't the best place in the world to roam at night, so I opted for some quick room service for dinner.