The Namib is generally considered the oldest desert in the world, arid for at least 55 million years. Its most photographed corner lies in the Namib-Naukluft Park, where a river that reaches the sea only a few times a century ends in a chain of clay pans surrounded by dunes.
The dunes
The sand is iron-rich and oxidises with age, so the oldest dunes are the deepest red. Dune 45, named for its position 45 km from Sesriem, is the standard climb: about 170 m, twenty to thirty minutes, and best at sunrise. Big Daddy, at roughly 325 m, takes an hour along a knife-edge ridge and is rewarded by a running descent straight down the face into Deadvlei. Dune 7 near Walvis Bay, at about 383 m, is the highest but stands alone.
Deadvlei
A white clay pan surrounded by dunes, where camel thorn trees died around six hundred years ago when a shifting dune cut off the water. The wood has not decomposed because the air is too dry, so black skeletons stand on white clay against orange sand and blue sky. It is a kilometre walk from the 4x4 car park, unshaded and hot after nine in the morning.
Getting there
Everything starts at Sesriem gate. The tarred road runs 60 km to the 2x4 car park; the last five kilometres to Sossusvlei are deep sand and need a four-wheel drive or the shuttle that runs from the car park. Sesriem Canyon, a narrow gorge cut by the Tsauchab, is a short stop near the gate.
Gate times
This is the single most important piece of planning. The outer gate opens at sunrise, but guests staying inside the park perimeter, at Sesriem campsite or the lodges within, may pass the inner gate an hour earlier and reach the dunes for first light. Everyone else arrives after the best hour has gone. Book inside if photography matters.
From above
Balloon flights lift off before dawn and land with a champagne breakfast; scenic flights from Swakopmund or Sesriem cross the dune sea to the shipwrecks of the coast. Both are expensive and both show a geometry invisible from the ground.
Practicalities
Carry at least two litres of water per person, more in summer, when temperatures exceed 40 degrees. Climb dunes barefoot on the shaded side; the sand burns by mid-morning. There is fuel at Sesriem and Solitaire, and nothing between. Accommodation ranges from the campsite to luxury lodges in the NamibRand reserve, an International Dark Sky Reserve with some of the clearest night skies anywhere.