From Betta, we continued our drive to Sesriem. We first detoured to Duwisib castle, but decided it probably wasn’t worth the entry fee. Coming from Europe, we’re a bit spoiled with pretty castles I guess. The rest of the drive took longer than expected, because the scenery was really nice and we spotted quite some animals along the way: oryx antelopes, ostriches and zebras! Not too bad.

We arrived in Sesriem at noon, grabbed a pie for lunch and checked into our camp inside the national park. This was the most expensive and worst value for the money campsite so far, but it would allow us to see sunset and sunrise in the park. First, we headed to Sesriem Canyon although we probably should have waited longer with that. It was sizzling hot! We felt like roasted chicken hiking through the canyon in the midday heat. Haha. Oh well! It was nice to see, but not really spectacular for us.

Later, we drove further into the national park to see some sand dunes. The landscape was sooo beautiful!! We kept stopping for photos all the time. Our favourite dune was Dune 40, which was really picturesque. We stayed there for quite a while to wait until the light got better and better and took loads of photos.

We also checked out Dune 45 where we were going to see the sunrise next day, and left for Elim Dune for sunset. Not sure this was the best decision, since it’s a widespread kind of dune which was tough to climb. The pretty part about it was that there was grass growing on there though, so that looked very nice in the evening light.

The sunset was ok, nothing to write home about. We headed back to the campsite shortly after, to cook dinner and go sleep early. Next day the alarm was set for 5.30, to start driving as soon as the gate would open at 6.00. If you don’t, you don’t make the sunrise at Dune 45. Also, if you keep to the speed limit, you won’t make it in time. Lol. Anyways, we made it, climbed up more or less quickly (dunes are so exhausting!!) and watched the sun rise slowly, changing the colours of the surrounding sand dunes every minute. The light was just amazing!! What was also really cool was that we were able to see the (full?) moon and the sun at the same time, facing each other.

A good start into day 6! After we had properly appreciated the surrounding dunes, we drove on to Sossusvlei to see the most famous part of the national park: Dead Vlei. I was a bit worried about the last 5 km of road which are 4wd only, but we deflated our tires appropriately for sand and were fine following the tracks. It was actually fun!

From the parking, we first hiked up Big Daddy Dune halfway, then ran down the side. We could have climbed up all the way, but firstly I was kind of done with climbing sand dunes and secondly, I really wanted to get down into Dead Vlei when the light was still kind of good. So that’s what we did and it was… stunning!!

Yeps, this is the place where those famous photos are from. White ground, brown/blackish trees, red dunes and blue skies. An incredible combination! We spent a couple of hours here, making sure to take the best photos possible.

We left to drive around some more and to see Hidden Vlei which was described in the guidebook as an easy hike. Haha, certainly not in the midday heat! Also, it was not really worth the pain, as Dead Vlei is just the best and nothing could top that anymore after.

Anyways, we at least felt like we had seen it all, so ready to leave the national park and head towards Solitaire. Here, we were luckily able to fix our fridge which had had an issue since the evening before. An essential piece of equipment in the heat of Namibia! We also bought some of the famous apple pie in Solitaire before heading just a little bit further to an amazing little campsite. The location was beautiful, there were turtles crawling around and at night time we watched some shy zebras next to the waterhole. Unfortunately, they never really came out of the shadow, but it was still really really cool to hear them all around us in the dark. Sleeping between zebras – I like!

Day 7 brought us back to the cooler coast past some pretty landscapes and galloping zebras. At last we got to see them! The rest of the drive was not as interesting, Kuiseb Canyon and the other viewpoints mildly interesting.

Then we arrived in Walvis Bay, where we did some groceries before checking out the famous flamingos. They’re everywhere here and there’s so many of them! Really cool.

For the night, we drove halfway to Swakopmund to Langstrand where we found a cheap if very basic camping. It was cold, gloomy beach time again!

The following day, we checked out Swakopmund a bit and did some more groceries. Swakopmund is definitely much nicer than Lüderitz, the German influence is much more visible and it’s the prettiest town we have seen in Namibia so far.

From here, it was a short drive only to Spitzkoppe where we arrived in time for a late lunch. It took us a while to pick a campsite since there are sooo many beautiful ones, set between photogenic rocks, scattered really far apart. Basically, you drive around, look at what’s all available and take your pick!

We were lucky to arrive early and have almost the full choice of options – but in any case there are enough pretty sites for everyone! Site 9B appealed to us the most with its beautiful setting which made for great pictures later on when the sun went down.

Before settling down, we drove around a bit in the huge area and took lots of photos. It’s a very picturesque place! There’s also a rock bridge which looks cool both in the late afternoon, as in the early morning.

We spent the evening with a successful braai (Afrikaans for BBQ) and some grilled marshmallows while watching the beautiful starry sky above us. Out here, there’s almost no light pollution, so you can see sooo many stars!

In the morning of Day 9, we drove around a bit more to take some photos in the morning light. Have I mentioned how beautiful this place is!?

Then, our roadtrip took us back to the coast, more into Northern Namibia…