Things to do
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Deadvlei
Camel thorns that died in the fourteenth century still stand on this white clay pan, because the desert never grew the fungi and bacteria that turn dead wood into soil. The black on the trunks is sun damage and carries no petrification. Sunlight takes twenty to thirty minutes to clear the dune wall and reach the floor.
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Dune 45
Forty five kilometres along the road from the gate, which is where the name comes from, a star dune stands close enough to the tar to climb before the light goes. The ridge underfoot is soft and the crest opens the first clear view across the dune field. Most vehicles stop here on the way in.
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Viewpoint
Elim Dune
Reached on a track from the campsite rather than the main road, this dune stands clear of the rest of the field and can be walked at either end of the day without passing the inner gate. The climb is short and steep, and the view from the crest runs east to the Naukluft escarpment.
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Landmark
Hiddenvlei
A second dead pan lies off the route the shuttles run, holding camel thorns of its own and a good deal less traffic. The walk in crosses open sand with no shade and no marked path beyond a line of posts. Heat shimmer sets in around eleven in the morning and softens everything after that.
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Little Kulala
West of the gate, a private reserve holds this camp, where each thatched villa carries a rooftop platform for sleeping out. The reserve keeps its own access into the dune field, so the morning drive avoids the queue at the main gate. Wilderness operates it and the desert season runs through the year.
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Landmark
Namib Sand Sea
UNESCO inscribed this dune field in 2013 under all four natural criteria, making it Namibia's second World Heritage site after Twyfelfontein. Fog off the Atlantic, never rain, supplies the water that its beetles, geckos and lichens live on. The sand itself arrived by river and ocean current from the Orange, far to the south.
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Sesriem Canyon
The Tsauchab has cut a slot about a kilometre long into conglomerate a short drive from the gate, narrow and deep enough that its floor stays shaded through the middle of the day. Pools stand at the bottom after rare rain. The name records the six lengths of hide once needed to draw water from it.
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Sossus Dune Lodge
Namibia Wildlife Resorts runs this timber and thatch lodge along a low ridge inside the park gate. Being inside counts for more than the rooms do: guests pass the inner gate about an hour before the outer one opens, which is the difference between reaching Deadvlei in first light and reaching it afterwards.
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Sossusvlei
A clay pan at the end of the tar, ringed by star dunes that run 300 to 400 metres and keep their shape because the wind reverses with the seasons. The Tsauchab reached this basin in wetter centuries and no longer does. The last stretch to the parking is deep sand that strands vehicles daily.