Deadvlei Desert Dreams

On 9th April, our second day at Namib Naukluft Park, we were up at 6am (sunrise) and straight back into the park but first (and very importantly it turned out) stopping at the Sossusvlei Lodge on the way in for a breakfast basket. We reached the park gates at 7am and drove straight to Deadvlei, so-called as some 900 years ago the dunes cut off Deadvlei from the river and it became too dry for the trees there to ever decompose. They were burnt by the sun but still stand proud - now over 1000 years old - and form a barren forest.

This is the second time in my life I had been here and it is truly magical! Salvador Dali eat your heart out! We reached there for just after 8am and went straight in to explore. It was tempting for Tiger to climb all over the trees but of course they are not allowed to be climbed on. This took a little explaining but she got it in the end!

We also of course had more running up and down sand dunes before heading out to attack our breakfast basket. I had actually debated whether to bother with this but it was absolutely amazing to have a basket, all our plates, and all kinds of breakfast foods to enjoy and we felt like kings compared to those with their 'packed lunch' style options.

As we drove out, we stopped at a number of other dunes to climb up, and slide down!! Including Dune 45 yet again!

It was definitely getting super hot though so around 1pm we headed off out of the park and back to Desert Camp to relax.

For our second night, we took the option of ordering meats and firewood to make our own BBQ at our little Desert Camp house. Which was definitely fun or funny as Ella and I really had no real idea of how to make a fire - but a South African neighbour helped us out and we didn't starve in the end!

We had a view straight out onto the desert - it was simply breathtaking!