Deadvlei…..but it wasn’t

we headed back to the desert inland to have a warm-up, the coast was very sunny but had a biting wind.

on the way, we called into Solitaire station, an old farm that found selling cake to tourists was a way better way of making money.

The campsites at the entrance to the Suossvei national park were full, and expensive so we had to stay at the campsite just inside the national park which was expensive and full but not quite the standard of the commercial ones.

in the morning we drove to the desert dunes, the Namibian government has done a great job of PR for these dunes, and when you travel down the 60km road you slowly go into a wide dune valley as the dunes get larger and larger, the drama building with every kilometer. eventually, a car park is reached, large signs proclaim, no, busses, trucks, or 2wd cars must pass here, only 4×4 and you must air down for the severe track while you journey deeper into the desert.

after another 10kms a large open area greats us with a hundred white pickups with roof tents all parked neatly, splattered among them are tourist toyota open sided buses that take 10-15 people.

we see the path of the tourists heading into the dunes to see the famous Deadvlei valley, a flat plain among dunes with carbonised dead trees.

the sandy track is 2km long and in soft sand, a large bank of sand is the last barrier that blocks the big reveal.

well, it’s not dead, and it’s not impressive, I agree if you have never been to big dunes and seen anything like this then yes it is different, but we have seen many times much more impressive basins of this nature, Milly’s comment. ‘ and it’s not even fucking dead’ sums it up, many trees and plants were alive and flourishing, but everyone keeps them out of the @instagram shots….what cunts, if only we had known.

after our trudge back to Dogger we were about to leave, deciding that another long walk to the an empty basin between dunes wasn’t worth the effort, but A local guide hailed us down and said ‘but you have not visited Sousvlei’ he sowed us the road and at least this one was a simple 1k drive…it wasn’t worth the drive oh well at least we can say we visited it, it may have been an amazing place ..now for the boring 60km back to the park gate.

no I didnt bother with any picture, googe deadvlei to see the con.