The Real Trip Begins!
Sossusvlei, Namib-Naukluft Park, Namibia
November 20, 2013Theresa is a little bit under the weather tonight, so for the second time in the 200+ entries we've had on this site, today's is written by me, William or Mr Bill as I seem to be known in this country.
The alarm went off at 6:45 so we could be ready for our 8am pick-up. We finished the last of our packing, went down for breakfast and checked out. Hopefully the lost baggage was the most drama we're going to have on our trip.
Our driver was right on time and we were going to the local "small" airport, Eros, and not back to WDH, honestly I was a little disappointed. We got there and met up with the Wilderness Safari representative who checked us in and introduced us to our pilot Carlos who couldn't be much older than 25 - man we're getting old Our Pilot. We had an hour flight from Windhoek to Sossusvlei on a little Cessna, during which I took another nap and we crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn.
We landed at a tiny airstrip on the edge of the park which contains the highest and oldest sand dunes in the world. Seeing it from the air was spectacular, but Theresa was most excited because she saw some animals on our approach - She was expecting the next two days to being only sand, climbing on sand, sand piled in different designs, blowing sand…
We were met at the airstrip by our personal guide for the next 2 days, Alpha. On the short drive to the lodge we saw new animals that we've never seen before ostriches, oryx and jackals; this in addition to many springbok. The oryx is the national animal of Namibia and has very impressive, distinctive horns.
Our cabin at Little Kulala is impressive, a large bedroom with all sides windowed out over the desert towards the sand dunes, an indoor and outdoor shower, a large outdoor sitting area with a private plunge pool, and even a sleeping area on the roof for falling asleep under the Namibian stars At the Watering Hole.
We had a wonderful lunch at the lodge (I had the chicken and mushroom pie and Theresa had the gazpachio soup). We were on the deck overlooking the watering hole where we saw many ostrich, oryx and springbok come for drinks of water. We went back to our cabin for an afternoon siesta before our 4:30 drive with Alpha.
On our drive we learned of the natural history of the area with lessons on the different plants and the rock formations. Alpha asked us if we had been to any other deserts, and although we have now been both to the Sahara and to the deserts in Arizona, the best comparison we could come up with to the scrub grass and terrain we were seeing was the arctic tundra in our very own Canada - not that the temperature was simmilar. We enjoyed the drive, the scenery and our sundowners and made it back to the lodge just before dark. Theresa was not feeling that well, probably from a little dehydration from our day in Windhoek, and decided to skip dinner and go straight to bed. Theresa missed out - dinner was awesome, a pork belly starter with a kudo fillet done perfectly for the main - not to mention the perfect bottle of wine.
Tomorrow starts at 5am so I had better finish up here - Hopefully we can get you back to your regular scheduled programming - I am seriously looking forward to the dunes….
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