Deserts

Prepare to drive hundreds of km on long, straight highways made of gravel, running silently in the middle of nowhere. But be on the look out, as the next bump can hide the beginning of a new breathtaking nowhere. This, we learned, is the Namib. Not by coincidence the name is supposed to mean something along the lines of wide dry plains. And not by coincidence, this has given the name to the whole country, one of the driest in the world.

After a red, dusty start of the journey, a flat yellow land takes over, as if some kind of sand had spread itself all around. Except it is not sand: looking closer, it turns out it is a kind of short light grass, betraying the presence of some water somewhere sometime.

We cross very few cars. And a lonely cyclist, looking even lonelier against the yellow nowhere he has decided to challenge.

But the gravel highway goes on and after the next road bump, the grass disappears and a dark rocky world begins, bringing with it a hilly landscape, a sequence of unexpectedly slippery curves and lookouts over a moon-like valley.

A bus has stopped on the side of the road. People replacing a broken tyre is common sight on this road. We already crossed three of them just today. But not the case for the bus: there is a road sign indicating we are crossing the Tropic of Capricorn. Photo time. Actually, good idea.

But this is not yet the end of the journey. First we need to cross a long stoney white nowhere, with the deteriorated gravel highway turning into an endless sequence of small bumps, shaking the 4x4 and our stomachs.

But there we are, at last. Or almost: we reach Sesriem, the gate to the most scenic, best known part of the Namib. The gravel turns into smooth asphalt accompanying us for 65 km through the amazing orange dunes of the Sossusvlei.

Ever changing shape, heights of up to 350 metres, against the wind incessantly blowing off the superficial layer, we try to climb the most accessible one, Dune 45.

The end of the journey brings us to the Dead Vlei: in the zenith of the midday sun, a bunch of dead trees stand like an accusation, in a lake of white salt, against the orange of the dunes and the intense blue of the sky. The stunning reward of the long desert route.

The classic Namibian postcard photo in our pocket, exhausted by the heat, the wind and the dust, time to go back and prepare the next stop: Bavaria of Africa.