Ivan got us up at 4:30 so we could get to the desert before it got too hot.  There is a central road down through the dunes.  It's like this on either side of you, with the rising sun making beautiful patterns and shadows.

The dunes are numbered so you know where you are--they go for miles and miles.  Here's # 45--a favorite for climbing.

You can see where people have walked, or rather, trudged, up.

But the Big Daddy Dune is the one most people (not me) feel challenged to climb.  You can see some of them on the top.

We did walk about a mile through the sands and it's tough slogging.

At least I didn't carry the big video camera that Ed did.  He is quite a professional videographer and it will be so exciting to have a tape of the trip--we've never had that before. 

My dermatologist would be so proud of me--hat, long sleeves and sunscreen.  We walked a little over a mile to the Dead Vlei and Ivan and I rested and watched beetles and lizards in the sand.  Note the vastness behind us.

Here's the Dead Vlei--it had water hundreds of years ago.  Vlei, pronounced flay, by the way, is an Afrikaans word for a low marshy place.  It seemed very desolate.

Then we trudged back to the Sossusvlei which is at the end of the long road through the dunes.  It actually still had a little water in it from the unusually heavy rains of the previous months, but there was no wildlife except birds there.  Ivan then set up a nice brunch in the shade of a tree.  We felt as though we'd been around the world and it was only about 10:30 in the morning!

Not wanting to carry the heavy lens, I had only the point and shoot with me.  I promise more detailed pictures when we come to the animal stuff.

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