Thursday 12th October 2017

Sossusvlei .... Rest Day

We were supposed to have received a wake-up knock on the door at 5.30 am this morning for a 6.40 am departure for the dunes. We must have slept through it. Woke at 6.10 am and rushed to get on our safari truck. We drove into the Namib Naukluft Park (the lodge is very close to the park entrance) and soon saw the towering orange sand dunes (the Namib is the oldest desert in the world). We passed Dune 45 which many people were climbing and on to Big Daddy and Mumma dunes. We could either walk up the dunes or across to the pan of Sossusvlei. 

After this exertion we drove to a shady spot under some trees where the lodge people had set out a buffet breakfast complete with table lined and dining chairs. On the way we saw a few Oryx and some ostriches.

It was then back to the lodge where the mechanics were busy in the cars (generally suspension problems) after the rough roads of yesterday. We have an ignition switch problem (which is why we had a few problems yesterday after switching off the engine) and the broken speedo cable. A new ignition switch had been installed in August prior to shipping.  With the help of Tony, one of the mechanics, we bypassed the ignition switch and now have extra switches mounted here and there to start the car. Didn't have the right tool for the speedo cable so will have to make do with the GPS for distances. 

The weather is very hot so managed to get some washing dried in the sun.

Haven't had good internet connections to download photos but will do so when available.