March 26, 2020

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SOSSUSVLEI

Sossusvlei is this beautiful National park where you get to explore the oldest desert of the world. This is where the incredible petrified trees are located. If you don’t know about it the Park have even more to offer. It is also a touristic spot of Namibia so you want to be organized to enjoy it fully 

  • THE GATE OPENING HOURS

  • WHERE TO STAY ?

  • WHEN TO VISIT DURING THE DAY ?

  • WHAT IS THERE TO SEE ?

  • IN WHICH ORDER TO EXPLORE ?

  • HELPFUL ORIENTATION 


THE GATE OPENING HOURS 

The National park is accessible through a single tarred road that leads you to all the different points of interest that you will find along the sides of this road. You drive until the end and then you come back through the same road to the main camp.
The National park access is protected by 2 gates

 

  • 🚧 The main entrance gate gives you access to Sesriem camp : registration, big parking, restaurant, bathrooms, campsite, gas station, pool …This gate opens at 7am

  • You register at the camp, pay your entrance fee and then you will pass a second gate that gives you access to the national park road

  • The second gate gives you access to the road to enter the park and opens at 6am to close for sunset. 

  • 💡For this reason I advise you to book a night in Sesriem camp ;) In doing so there are multiple advantages :

    • You register the day before exploring and save a lot of time not queuing behind every other car
    • You can enter inside the park 1h before everyone else, and will share the site with a few persons for the first hour.
    • Simply be ready at 5h30 and queue in front of the road gate to be in the first

WHERE TO STAY ?

You have 3 options to stay in Sesriem camp :

  • ⛺️$ - NWR Sesriem Campsite
    It gets booked quickly, you have your camping spot, a pool, 
shared campsite bathroom and toilets, and a restaurant

NAD$ 490



  • ⛺️ $$ - Dead Valley Lodge - Campsite
    This option is available only since September 2019, 
You get a private bathroom on your camping spot, plugs,
sink, and shader just for yourself

  • ⛺️ $$$ - Dead Valley Lodge
    It’s a luxury tent complex that opened in September 2019
You have A/C, wifi, amazing ensuite bathroom, 
swimming pool, and a view over the desert, plus amazing restaurant. NAD$ 3625 per person per night

WHEN TO VISIT DURING THE DAY ?

  • 🌞 Go early in the morning start exploring the site at 6am. The sun will rise fast and so will the temperatures ! 

You will be surrounded with sand and no shadow so you need to explore the site in the morning between  6-10 am.

  • 🌅 Alternatively if you arrive the day before go check the close attractions such as Elim Dunes when the sun start to be low to see the colors of sunset over the desert. 

Go 1,5 hour before sunset enjoy the show and come back quickly on to the camp before they close the gate.

  • 💦 In the meantime, relax and refresh yourself by the pool of the camp before hitting the dusty road again

 

WHAT IS THERE TO SEE ? 

  • 🌵Deadvlei - The petrified forest in the middle of a dry cracked salted pan, this is the most iconic scenery of Namibia

  • 🌵Big Daddy one of the highest dune in the world  - 325m
You get a 360 degree view of the park

  • 🌵Dune 45 - One of most photogenic dune with its sharp shadow. However to get a good contrast you need to be there early in the morning, as the sun rises the shadow disappears.

  • 🌵Elim dunes and their bright red sand they spread on a very wide distance. Climb at the top to observe the immensity of the desert and the harsh shapes created by the wind

 

IN WHICH ORDER TO EXPLORE ?

  1. ELIM DUNES : If you sleep in Sesriem camp don’t miss the sunset over this beauty 🌅

  2. BIG DADDY or DEADVLEI : go straight to the further point especially if you slept in Sesriem camp, you have 1h to take advantage of the empty site 
    • If you plan on Climbing Big Daddy start off with this, take a hat and water it takes at least an hour and you will be hot very fast
    • If you do not plan on climbing this big baby go straight to Deadvlei to admire the beautiful trees. 
The light keeps changing as the sun rises above the dunes that surrounds the pan.
3. DUNES 45 : Drive back to see Dune 45 and catch it while there is still a strong shadow on one of its side (if you choose to climb up Bid daddy you would arrive too late)

4. ELIM DUNES : If you didn’t see the sunset over Elim Dunes the night before go have a look of these beautiful red dunes just before exiting the park 

5. SESRIEM CANYON : Before exiting the main gate take a right turn after the little gas station and follow the gravel road to Sesriem canyon. 
Hike down and explore it ! it’s quite easy and you can get some shadow in there

HELPFULL ORIENTATION 

  • 🚧The road to access Sesriem is quite hard to drive it’s a thick gravel road

  • You then discover that Sesriem camp is a tarred road and that most of it is very smooth to drive on. From the camp to Sossusvlei it takes 1h drive through the park.

  • The last 5km of the road to Sossusvlei is sand you only get there with a 4x4

  • 🗺 The map you get of the National park at the entrance is not very readable and accurate. Check in maps.me to see where you are exactly in the park to easily locate the places of interest around you (don’t mind the time of driving it will give you it is not reliable simply use it to locate yourself on the map)

  • ⚠️ Once you arrive in Sossusvlei you park the car and have to walk to see Deadvlei or Big Daddy. 
There is no signs which indicates where to go. It’s early in the morning you are not fully awake it’s easy to get lost (we got lost climbing Bid daddy when we only wanted to see the trees…). I will make it easy for you :

    • TO SEE THE TREES : From the car park always go straight in front
    • TO CLIMB BIG DADDY : Go straight and turn left in the valley before the Dunes and walk to the end of it, then start climbing up

 

 

Written by Cyrielle Goupil