Sossusvlei in 2 days
One morning decides the whole visit: the gate opens with the sun, Deadvlei is sixty-five kilometres away, and the colour lasts until eight — everything else is waiting.
- How long
- 2 nights
- Getting around
- Your own car to the car park
- Rhythm
- The gate at sunrise
Sossusvlei is seen in one morning, but it needs two nights: you arrive and buy the ticket the first evening, chase the light to Deadvlei the first morning, and keep the second as a spare if the wind was lifting sand. The canyon and a dune sunset are the afternoons in between, and the night is a reason of its own.
Arrival, the canyon, a first dune for sunset
Arrive at Sesriem after four to five hours of gravel from Windhoek. Check into the camp and buy the ticket at the gate: €15 per person plus the vehicle fee.
The Sesriem canyon, two kilometres from the gate: a thirty-metre cut in conglomerate walked in shade. An hour, and the only shade in the area.
Elim dune, five kilometres inside the gate: half an hour up the ridge for the sunset over the plain and the Naukluft mountains. No deep sand to get stuck in and no shuttle.
Dinner at camp and an early night — tomorrow starts before five.
The sky: a dark-sky reserve, the Milky Way from horizon to horizon and not a light for a hundred kilometres.
Deadvlei at dawn, back before the heat
Leave with the gate: sixty kilometres of tarmac through dunes that turn from purple to red at dawn.
Dune 45 at the forty-fifth kilometre: half an hour up the ridge, on top before the sun rises above it. Skip it and you gain half an hour at Deadvlei.
The car park at kilometre 60; the last five kilometres by park shuttle or 4x4 with deflated tyres. An ordinary car gets stuck here and the morning is lost.
A kilometre's walk to Deadvlei: a white clay pan with black trees, dead for six to seven centuries, beneath the dune Big Daddy. The photograph is made while the dune's shadow is still on the pan: by nine from May to August, by eight from November to January.
Big Daddy for anyone with the legs: an hour and a half up the ridge, five minutes running down the face to the pan. Two litres of water each, and not after ten.
Back; by noon everything is white and without contrast. The afternoon is the camp pool.
If a day is left: Sesriem again, or the road to the coast, four to five hours to Swakopmund with Solitaire halfway.
Three things that wreck the plan
- Leaving at eight. From May to August the light is flat by nine, from November to January by eight; the whole point of Sossusvlei is the first hour after sunrise.
- An ordinary car on the last five kilometres. The sand is deep and recovery comes from Sesriem; the shuttle costs less than a lost morning.
- One night. If the wind lifts that morning there is no second chance — and wind in the Namib is not rare.
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
How many days does Sossusvlei need?
Two nights. The dunes are seen in one morning, but if the wind lifts that morning there is no second chance — and the canyon and the Elim dune sunset need an afternoon. A third day has nothing to add.
Do you need a 4x4?
For the last five kilometres to Sossusvlei yes, or the park shuttle that runs both ways. The car park at kilometre 60 is reached in an ordinary car on tarmac; beyond that it is deep sand.
Is it worth sleeping inside the gate?
It is, and it is the one supplement that changes the day: the inner gate opens an hour before the outer one, so you reach Dune 45 before sunrise. Places are booked months ahead.
Ready for Sossusvlei?
Where to next
The best time to visit Sossusvlei
→The dunes look the same all twelve months — what changes is how cold the dawn is, how much sand is in the air…
Swakopmund · 239 km
→A German seaside town between the desert and the cold Atlantic, with more than 180 days of fog a year — a rest from the gravel and a base for dunes, lagoon and seals
How well does Sossusvlei suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
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