Scenery in Namibia is big. I mean, really big. And orange. These are the biggest sand dunes in the world, at Sossusvlei in the Namib Naukluft national park. There isn't a vast amount of wildlife around here, but the scenery more than makes up for it. It's difficult to get a sense of perspective, but to give an idea, the trees at the base of this dune are full-on trees, not little shrubs.
All the dunes have numbers rather than names. You drive down the road, and there are little signs like mailboxes telling you which dune you're passing. Number 26 is particularly photogenic, but suffers from over-touristing. When I got there, about a gazillion fitness freaks were busy proving their climbing abilities to themselves and leaving unsightly footsteps up the knife edge ('blade') of the dune.
So I simply drove on a bit until I came to number 33 (I think) which was picture perfect. Why, I have no idea. Maybe 33 isn't as macho a number as 26. Maybe 26 was a better climb. Not having the mental fortitude to clamber up bloody great piles of sand in the heat of the desert, (a shorter way of saying this would be 'lazy') I can have no answers....
Here's another dune, this time with Oryx at the base. These attractive antelopes are about two thirds the size of a horse, but next to the dune they appear utterly insignificant. It's difficult not to simply stand there and stare at these dunes with your jaw hanging down. Surely, they must qualify as being one of the natural wonders of the world.
