iconic Namibia.  This is what we see on TV. 

Sort of a weird name.  How do you say that again?  Namibia is where the native tribes speak that “clicking” language.  We met a desert nomad during our quad-bike tour (doesn’t that sound awful?  Riding a quad bike through a desert nomad’s home?), who taught us the four clicks and how they sound.  Mike bought a really cool art print from him that illustrates all the clicks.  (Does that make up for quad-biking through his home?) 

This was the sunrise that morning.

We’d arrived in Sossusvlei the day before at Desert Homestead Lodge, a lovely lovely place just outside the National Park.

This was the view from the dining room.  It was a little too cold and windy to eat outside, but inside there was a warm roaring fireplace with heavy wooden tables.  It really felt like a ski lodge, or maybe a ranch in Texas?  Thick beams supported the ceiling and warmed up the bar, and furniture-sized sticks of wood had been harvested to create tables, support curtains, and display postcards next to the coffee table.  It felt so clean and… organic.  An “eco-tourism” success!  

Although I’m sure Kelly and Jason would have preferred hot water in their room to “eco-tourism” on that cold night.  The down comforters did their best, though the wind whipping around our chalets was close to a howl.

The next morning we woke up VERY early, before the sun, and had a weird breakfast of boiled eggs and bread and jam while birds flew around our heads in the dining room.  Everyone at the lodge was up early to see the sunrise over the dunes, but we still had a 20 minute drive to get to the park entrance.  Onward ho!  Everyone to the car!  So we can get to the entrance first and…. wait until it opens…

The wealthy early birds were out ballooning with a champagne breakfast over the dunes.  Is it just me, or does this look like Arizona?  Maybe Santa Fe?

Ostriches…

Nope, not Arizona.

The famous Dune 45.

Cute guy in front of a dune.

Making a sand angel.

Made it to the top!  Of one of them, anyway…

After a few hours of climbing, the sun was all the way up and we sat on top of a dune to eat our packed lunch.  it was only about 9 o’clock in the morning but we were all hungry!  Juice boxes and some sort of bologna and cheese things, which we passed around until they were all gone.  Did anybody bring the apples?

No, but we brought twizzlers!  We learned that it’s kind of hard to brush off twizzlers if you drop them in the sand.

Sossusvlei is so cool!  The sand was freezing, but we even got the kids to pose.  Thanks for the picture Jason!