Day Five & Six:
January 18, 2018
And on the Fifth and sixth day...
After an amazing week of the Pathways Conference and a day spent with GCF staff, it’s the weekend and I’m heading south to Sossusvlei. On the 400 km journey it’s evident of the deep diversity and natural beauty of the Namibian landscape. On the route through Remhoogte Pass we viewed Oryx, ostrich, springbok, and baboons, as well as sociable weaver nest, huge weaver nest. The scenery changes from highland shrub acacia savannah, open plains and rock formations to the Namib Desert floor of wide open spaces. Vegetation also changes to from beautiful camel thorn and wild ebony trees to their desert adapted counterparts like the shepherd’s tree, “stinky shepherds” tree, rock wild fig and many shrubs and grasses.
Our lodge for the night is the Desert Homestead with a watering hole just in view from my room/bed. See the pictures of the oryx. I took a horseback ride to view the Namib desert sunset, really one of the most beautiful I’ve seen and will remember forever. Before sunrise we drove to the great Sossusvlei Dunes to check a bucket list item off, climbing, what is often referred to as the highest dune in the world, named big Daddy. The dunes are are located in the Namib Naukluft Park, the largest conservation area in Africa, and the fourth largest in the world. The view from the the crest of the dune of Dead Vlei an amazing site with petrified camel thorn trees that have survived for hunders of yearsafter the dune bloced the river. I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.
