Cape Town to Livingstone (Part I) – Desert, Dust, Dunes and Apple Pie

(Originally posted November 2010)
I joined up with my travel group in Cape Town on Thursday 4th November in the evening. A small group of 13, lead by Kenyan tour guide Makori Johnson and a couple of crew. Our home for 3 weeks is a truck that looks like something out of the Soviet era but is surprisingly comfortable and very well equipped! Well it’s a Mercedes-Benz truck after all…

Left Cape Town on a beautiful clear day and started the trip with a half day visit to the Cape of Good Hope before heading north. The landscape becomes rugged and dry within 200km, only to become greener with the higher altitude along the western edge of the Cederberg mountain range. The route took us through the Cederberg Wilderness Area (and vineyards) en route to Klawer.

Any cloud that was lingering about on the south coast had disappeared to leave a deep blue sky. We had a brai that evening and a few drinks at a lovely campsite overlooking the vineyards.

We set off early the next morning and the landscape quickly became more arid as we left the irrigated valleys behind. These are the upper reaches of the Great Karoo. Further to the north west starts the famous Kalahari. Saturday was a long drive all the way into Namibia. As one crosses into Namibia the landscape becomes more rocky and the red earth more prominent. The football proved a useful purchase as we waited to clear the border.

That evening was spent just over the border on the banks of the Orange river. A lovely campsite with bar, pool, restaurant and great facilities. A small oasis in a lunar landscape.

Sunday morning was leisurely as some people opted for a 3 hour canoe on the river. I went for a run (kept it short as even at 9am the sun is punishing!) and a swim! We left after lunch and had a short 2 1/2 hour drive to the Fish River Canyon. As soon as we headed off the tarmac road, dust was everywhere… There was no option to have the windows closed given the heat and no air con.

The canyon is stunning. Reminiscent of it’s bigger brother in Arizona, but at 549m, just not as deep. The top part of the canyon was formed by glacial erosion during a glacial period 300 million years ago. Only the lower portion of the canyon was cut by the river over a few million years. A ridge walk later and it was sundowner time, overlooking the canyon naturally!

The next day and it was an early morning start for a long and dusty days drive to Sesriem in the Namib-Naukluft desert. Beautiful scenery all along the way. The campsite is in a great spot, nestled between the mountains and the desert dunes. After cleaning the truck, a few beers and dinner it was bedtime. Really early morning tomorrow!

We were up at 4.30am and were first into the Namib-Naukluft national park for the drive to dune 45. Only a few groups around but the route still looked like an ant trail heading up the dune. Beautiful sunrise with the red sand glowing and the lines drawn by the wind shimmering in the early morning light. The scenery is fantastic with dunes as far as the eye can see… Lots of pictures!

Dune 45 @ sunrise

From the top of Dune 45

More sand sculptured by the wind...

Breakfast was at the foot of the dune before heading to Sossusvlei (meaning ‘the pan where the river ends’) and a 2 hour desert walk to the dead vlei (‘the dead pan’) with our bushman guide Frans. One of the best guides i’ve ever met. His knowledge of the desert, its life and survival in the bush was incredible and his passion for the tradition that was passed down from his father and grandfather shone through. The advance of the sand means that one day the dead vlei will be totally engulfed in sand and the Sossusvlei will become a new dead vlei. One day the dunes will cover the entire area between the sea and the Namib-Naukluf mountains.

Sossusvlei

We arrived in Swakopmund on Wednesday morning, the day after leaving Sossusvlei after a stop for apple pie in Solitaire (a famous stop made even more famous by Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman stopping there on ‘A Long Way Down’) and a bush camp in the middle of the desert.

We now have a couple days in Swakopmund, a small and very german enclave in the middle of the desert along the Atlantic coast, before heading north up the Skeleton Coast towards Etosha National Park.