The Red Sands of the Namib

Monday, October 31, 2011

The earliest wake-up call of our program prepares us for a pre-dawn jeep ride to the Namib and its legendary dunes. It's cold, even in the late springtime. Our drivers have brought blankets for us to use in the open air, and we accept them gladly. Soon enough, we'll be in the hot midday sun. But for now, our drive into the desert takes us by red sand dunes sculpted by the wind.

The Namib has two types of dunes: those that are anchored by rock ridges, and those that wander, pure sand from top to bottom. All of the dunes we see today are anchored by the rocks underneath them. The shadows from the early morning sun transform their graceful shapes into sharp contrasting curves. As we drive the forty miles from our lodge into the desert, there is a seeming endless parade of stunning light tan and dark red peaks, set against a dramatically blue sky.

Our Road Scholar program takes us past the first and most famous of the Namib's dunes, crowded with sightseers and hikers even at the early hour we arrive. We head further west to the Dead Vlei, where wandering dunes cut off the water to a forest 1,500 years ago. Their dried trunks still stand today, gray against the white salt flats underneath and red dunes behind. It seems like every few hours of every day bring a new world.

On our drive back to the lodge, we stop by Sesriem Canyon, a place that was once a main watering stop for traders and travelers in the 19th century. We walk down the steps they carved into the stone to find a place where water was always available, even in the hottest days of summer. But it's just a brief stop, even if it is as other-worldly as it is historical.

Our evening brings a second jeep excursion to the petrified dunes above our lodge, through grasslands as endless as the morning's red sands. Words can't begin to describe the wonders we discover at every turn. And then this day, a day in which we've seen the world's oldest desert, ends with a magical drive in a caravan of open jeeps to a pre-dinner salute to the Namibian sunset, high above a world we will always feel lucky to have seen for ourselves.