Sadly we had to leave the comfort of the hostel and real beds but we drove to yet another glorious site as Sesreim campsite is nestled in among the vast red sand dunes. The drive to get there was long but there were fun stops along the way, including a quaint little town named Solitaire with its classic car graveyard and DELICIOUS bakery.
We woke up in the dark in the midst of a sandstorm and raced to Dune 45 – a 170 metre red sand dune. The walk up was really hard (for some of us more than others….) but with the sun rising in the back ground in was worth it. We literally raced back down the dunes – great fun – to the truck for a much needed coffee and breakfast break before hitting the road again to see yet another amazing Namibian landmark – a Petrified Forest stuck in the middle of more sand dunes. As amazing as it was we ran into a large sandstorm, so with the morning still relatively young (10:30am) and sand blowing into places it ought not to be, we raced back to the campsite to pull down our tents.
Alas upon arriving back at the campsite we found a bit of a disaster. The wind had taken some our tents on walkabouts and filled them with sand. Oh Joy! Putting everything away was a bit of an adventure – but it made for a memorable morning. The drive to the next site was a bit quieter than usual so we took the chance to snooze off the mornings exertions.
We passed through more spectacular geological scenery on the drive before arriving at a thankfully less windy campsite – giving us a chance to clean out some of the desert that had found its way into our belongings – before eating a fabulous dinner of Snoek fish and potatoes.