The beauty of the Namibian desert | #steemexclusive / 10 photos

When I was in Namibia I did a road trip through large areas of the Namib desert. This desert is not only one of the driest deserts in the world. It is also one of the oldest. It is estimated that it might be somewhere between 55 to 80 millions of years. Because we drove ourselves, we were able to see a large area of the desert. From the coast to the inland and from the north to the south. When driving we really got a feeling of the size of the desert. The Namib Naukluft National Park is also one of the largest game parks in the world. I chose to spend several days visiting the area of Sossusvlei.

The desert isn’t inhabited by many people, but you will see animals here. Most of them are very small animals who does not need much water. What kind of animals you will see, depends on where you are within these almost 50.000 square kilometers of desert. In the northern parts its possible to see elephants and zebras. By the coast, seals. I saw the seals, but not any elephants. I did not notice any animals on the sand dunes.

Dune 45

The landscape is dominated by sand in many different forms. The most impressive are without any doubt the huge sand dunes. They are among the highest in the world. Some of them mesure up to 300 meters. That is huge when standing at the foot looking to the top. Like Dune 45 it's possible to climb some of them. That's why you see people on top of it.

My lodge -Sossus Dune Lodge is located inside the park gates. That gave me an oportunity to get up before sunrise and drive to the dune 45 when it was still dark. The plan was to be on top to watch the sunrise. The gate to the park is at Sesriem and because it's closed during the night, I thought it wise to stay in a lodge inside the park.

Another stunning experience was to vist Deadvlei. This is ancient landscape. A dry riverbed is what is left of a river that was once here. It’s like walking on a dry, cracked floor of mud. The camel thorn trees are dead, but still standing as black sihouettes against the blue sky and the sand dunes. They are actually around 500 years old. A unique experience. This is truely a beautiful desert.

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U.J

Kristiansand, Norway

All the photoes are mine, Ulla Jensen (flickr, Instagram and facebook)

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