Now We've Dune It!

Perhaps our favorite day on this trip (so far) was our day in the hauntingly beautiful Souseflei area of the Namib-Nakluft national park. The desert dunes are a stunning red color and they just popped up on the horizon after hours of driving through what looked like a barren wasteland.







We started our time in the desert with a walking tour. Our guide was hysterical. He is a white man named Bushman who has lived in the desert his entire life. He never wears shoes (even though the sand was a gazillion degrees!). He knows everything about the desert, and oddly, he ran everywhere he went with a high-stepping sort of gate. He didn't sweat, and said he doesn't need to drink much water (all this as we slugged away at our lemon zinger hot tea and slopped the sweat from our brows). Bushman had great knowledge, and we learned a lot about the dunes and the area's plants, animals (which are basically just insects and the one kind of antelope that can actually survive there), and the people. The San people were the only ones who really "lived" among the dunes, and their life was hard. He said up until the 1920s visitors could apply for hunting licenses to hunt San people. Even the tribal Africans called them the "people who live like anmials." They were not thought of as fellow humans. Very interesting stories we heard about the San and their hard life.

Souseflei fun fact -- the movie "The Cell" shot scenes with Jennifer Lopez on the dunes playing with the little boy.


After our tour, we went to Dune 45 for a sunset hike. It was a fun, tough experience to walk up the spine of the big red dune, but the sand is soft as powder and the views were enough to keep you going. And boy did Kathleen ever go! She hiked the entire dune, all the way to its far end. Only two people in our group of 30 made it that far -- Kathleen and the one young 24 year old guy. I was so proud of her as I watched from a distance with most of the others! :) Sunset was stunning, and the photos will be a special keepsake to remember our visit to this awe-inspiring place.

Mere & Kathleen