Day 5: Sesriem Oshana

Day 5 started out with great excitement, but ended up to be the most bittersweet day of them all. Sweet because we finally got to see the dunes, but the terrible roads and polluting tourists made the journey to Sesriem feel fruitless.

Oom Boeta at Mount D'Urban advised us to take a detour past Duwisib Castle on the way to Sesriem and I would advise anyone to do it. Entrance is R60, but it is well worth it if you're into history or just admire the beauty of such a primitive yet classy way of living. The roads up to Duwisib Castle were good.

Duwisib Castle
The road up to Betta Campsite was good, but from here it turned into a real nightmare. The surrounding area got more beautiful by the kilometer, but the roads completely ruined most of the journey for me. Heavily corrugated, we were probably averaging around 40km/h. A couple of french tourists sped past us at around 120km/h, but we found them again 20km later repairing a burst tire.

The entrance to the red desert
We were welcomed to Sesriem by sweltering heat, hordes of tourists, and an intense dust storm. The camps at Sesriem are completely bare with a few trees for protection, but we booked at Sesriem Oshana which had some good, clean facilities and a front-row view of the desert. Setting up camp was reminiscent of being on a boat with a hole in it, we were constantly scooping out heaps of fine red sand from the tents.

Front-row view from the Sesriem Oshana Lodge
The tarred road to Sossusvlei was quite a pleasure to drive on. In my mind I was building up Dune 45 as the be all and end all of dunes. I couldn't wait to admire its sheer imagined size. You can probably imagine our surprise as we arrived to a small and empty dune, completely consumed by wind. I braved the strong wind and made it about half way up the dune before giving up, luckily it rewarded me with the best picture I took on our trip.

Dune 45, my picture of the week.
We continued on to Deadvlei where we assisted a couple of Chinese tourists who decided to take their Fortuner for a sand bath. The road to Deadvlei requires some basic knowledge of off-road driving so keep that in mind. Sun-downers at Deadvlei are well worth the trip.

Deadvlei. Truly living up to the name.
On the way back to camp we decided to give Dune 45 one last go as the wind had died down, but we were beaten by a bus of Chinese tourists. They decided to turn the pristine red sand into their personal trash can which completely ruined the experience for me. Nevertheless, I did end up making it all the way to the top.

Sunsets at Sesriem Oshana are unreal. We had a bus of Dutch tourists set up camp next to us, having a loud jol until late at night, followed by everyone getting up early to see the sunrise. If peace and quite is your thing, then Sesriem is probably not for you.

What I liked

* Deciding to make a detour past Duwisib Castle.
* The pristine sea of red Kalahari dunes.
* The shop at Sesriem Oasis had Danies Worcestershire braai salt which will forever change the way you look at braai spice.
* The sunset.
* Had a chance to take some amazing photos.


What I disliked

* A lot of sand in my tent.
* People who have zero respect for this magnificent place.
* The roads will probably make me steer clear next time.
* I find the lack of information at most of the Namibian run sites a bit underwhelming. There was no well presented history at  Duwisib Castle and no guides to the dunes at Sossusvlei.



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