With all the travel, today was really our first day of vacation. So what did we do? We climbed a sand dune. I know what you are thinking: that doesn't seem that interesting. But, the sand dunes here are like mountains and have names.
This is a sand dune
We climbed Big Daddy. Isn't climbing a mountain-sized sand dune hard? Yes. Yes, it is. It took us over an hour to climb the over 700 ft of elevation. How does one climb a sand dune? You slowly go up the peak.
We also saw an oryx on the way up. They kinda look like Dr. Seuss characters and is Trevor's new spirit animal since it was the first animal he saw in Africa.
Was it fun? Absolutely. Going back down was especially fun as we took our shoes off and kinda hopped down the steep side.
We also learned quite a bit about the Namib Desert and the sand dunes. The Namib Desert is arguably the oldest desert in the world and the sand dunes are formed by sediment that flows into the Atlantic Ocean from a river south of Namibia. The ocean currents and breezes push the sand back into Namibia until it is met by a western airflow which deposits the sand in giant dunes along the eastern coast of Namibia.
My only problem with the hike was the really, really long walk back to the car. I think it was payback for all the times I have told people "it's just around the corner" when the destination was really like 12 blocks away.
We finished the hike with a wonderful outdoor lunch in Sossusvlei (pronounced sue-sue-flay).
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