Ninety seconds on Deadvlei
Come in the first two hours after the gate opens, while dead camel thorn trees stand dark on a white clay floor below orange dunes and the low light still throws long shadows across the pan.
Stand at the edge of the pan and the whole view is three colours. The floor is flat white clay, the trees on it are dark and bare, and orange dunes close it in on every side.
The trees are camel thorns that died centuries ago, when the climate changed and the dunes cut off the river that fed this pan. The air has stayed too dry for them to rot, so they still stand where they grew.
Until the sun clears the high dune, the pan and its trees stay in shadow. They come into the light only as the sun climbs above the crest, so the scene changes through the first part of the morning.
Deadvlei is a separate pan from Sossusvlei, the one at the end of the road, which has its own page and its own dunes to climb. Here the dunes sealed the pan off from the river entirely, and the dead trees are left standing on the clay.
The shuttle comes first. Buy a ticket at Sesriem Campsite and ask where today's shuttle leaves from, or drive the sand yourself in a high-clearance 4x4 if the gate confirms you may.
Either way you end at the Deadvlei 4x4 car park. From there the pan is about a kilometre away on foot, over soft sand with no shade at any point.
On the pan, walk out among the trees across the white clay and take your photographs from the ground. Head back to the car park before the heat builds, then ride or drive out.
The shuttle suits you if you are happy to walk in alone and wander the pan at your own pace. A high-clearance 4x4 of your own does the same on your own clock, though the sand is deep enough to get stuck in. To hand over the timing, stay at a lodge inside the Namib-Naukluft Park, whose guides may drive their own guests to the Deadvlei car park.
Sleep inside the park gate if you can, since in-park camps let you set off before the main gate opens and reach the pan while the morning is still cool.
Carry more water than you think you need, and wear a hat, long sleeves and sunglasses for the open sand. Plan to be walking out by mid-morning, when the pan turns hot.
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