At 06:00 I was on the shuttle still half drunk driving to Sesriem. The August east winds were blowing sand into my eyes and I was not excited to be standing next to the road. I left my backpack at reception, bought my park ticket, filled my water bottles and went to stand next to the road to hitch a lift in to Sossusvlei.
At first no one wanted to pick met up, could they see I had a hangover? Then a French group stopped to pick me up. The Combi’s door opened and there sat a beautiful girl. Hell yeah, driving into the desert with a hot girl. I then found out they where French and could hardly speak a word of English. The girl sat in front of me reading the whole way. Could she also see I was hung-over? Her brother with his designer clothes sat next to me also reading. He did not look up once. I wanted to tell him: dude, look out the window, you’re in the f**king desert! But who am I other than a hitchhiker. At the drop off to Sossusvlei he grabbed his jacket and bubblegum and walked to the shuttle thinking he was boarding a party bus with his hot sister. From the drop off to Sossusvlei is 5km and you can only cover it in a 4x4 vehicle. If you don’t have a 4x4 then you take the shuttle for R110 or you walk like me.
I started to walk and thought I was never going to reach my destination. Even the crows knew I was hungover as they kept hovering over my head. Then as most tourist destinations would have it an idiot would get stuck in the sand. I helped them along with some other people and grabbed a lift with one of the other helpers for the last 2km to Sossusvlei.
At first I paid a visit to Deadvlei and it was amazing. All the dead trees standing between the dunes like statues. I took lots of photos while raping my water.
I then walked across to Sossusvlei, but before I could climb the dune I had to take a nap under a tree. It was in the heat of the day and I first had to get my powers back. The hot French girl and her gay brother passed me on their shuttle heading out. They had taken all their photos and were heading home while I still had/wanted to climb the dune.
I eventually reached the top with each step feeling like I might be climbing Everest. Took my photos and back down I went. An empty shuttle passed me and picked me up – for free. He could see I had a hangover that by this time was close to heatstroke.
From the drop off to Sesriem I got a lift with an Overland truck. They stopped halfway for lunch and I went to go lie under a tree again. Before departure one of the German tourists asked if she could empty the sand in her shoes in the parking lot. O my God, you’re in the f**king desert, look at all the sand around you! What question is that?
Back at reception I made some enquiries about camping. At first I thought it would be R150 to camp, cool, but then they informed me it would be R150 pp plus R300 for the site totaling to R450. I hadn’t even spent that much money to reach Sesriem.
So I walked to the only garage, filled my water bottles, bought a sandwich, lost my South African simcard between the rocks and took off in the direction of the mountains to find a quiet place to camp.
Getting back into the Sossusvlei nature reserve to find a tree or something would be a different story as the fences where raised and the park rangers where driving Germans around for sundowners or something. I felt like a Kudu looking for a place to jump the fence. Up and over the fence I speed walked to the river bed, hiding behind the bushed as the Land Rovers came past.
I pitched my tent camouflaged between the bushes and made the same old tuna meal while the jackals kept crying in the mountain.
The morning I woke up to the sound of a grunt. I zipped open my tent and saw a heard of Springbok standing around my tent also camouflaged from the German tourists.
Just after sunrise I was back at the garage for breakfast and on the road again north towards to Swakopmund.
