4: Passes, Gorges, Dunes And Canyons.

We leave Namibgrens headed for the Namibian big hitter, Sossusvlei. We’ll be visiting ‘Big Daddy’ - the area's highest sand dune and Deadvlei with its petrified forest.

On the way we traverse the Spreetshoogte Pass, this is Namibia’s steepest pass and it drops 1,000m in just 4 km. The view from the top is wonderful, reaching for miles and miles to the far distant mountains.

The view as Nick looks down at his trousers is not so good! He seems to have made friends with an Armoured Cricket!

Once we’ve descended the pass, the countryside is flat grassland for many miles. We stop in a very quirky cafe - the only sign of life we pass. The crashed space rocket and the astronauts aside, we discover the beer is served from a converted petrol pump!

A must-see on the way through to the dunes is Solitaire, reputedly Namibia’s smallest town.

Solitaire’s recipe for success comes from the fact that it has the only petrol station, bakery, cafe and the only general store between Walvis Bay and the sand dunes at Sossusvlei, a distance of 375 miles!

McGregor’s Bakery in Solitaire is famous for its apple pie which turns out to be more of a crumble really, but is as delicious as the hype would have us believe.

We can’t linger as the dunes are calling and we still have a long way to go.

We meet up with our friends Jonathan and Claire here. They’ll be joining us for part of our adventure having flown out from the UK and driven up from Cape Town.

We have travelled from just outside Walvis Bay on gravel roads of varying quality. Poor old Rocky has been rattled and shaken to within an inch of his life, but is holding up well.

To our relief, as we approach this remote place we are treated to a road as smooth as silk. We sail along and quickly reach our home for the next couple of nights, the Sesriem Campsite run by Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR).

We’ve read numerous reviews absolutely slating NWR campsites but we’ve picked this one anyway because it’s inside the gate of the Namib-Nakluft National Park, this is an important detail because we need to make the 65km drive out to Big Daddy and Deadvlei tomorrow morning to see the sunrise and guests staying inside the park have an hour's head start on those staying outside the park, as the main gate doesn’t open until dawn.

Our pop-up tent will come into its own tonight, sleeping in it means we don’t have to waste time packing away the roof-top tent in the morning and can be ready to go when the inner gate opens at 6.15 a.m.

We arrive at the gate at 6.15 and join the queue, the gate is opened promptly and we’re off on an extraordinary ‘Wacky Races’ experience with everyone driving fast and lots of overtaking and jostling for position.

We hurtle along in a race against time as the sky lightens and takes on the pinky hue of sunrise.

We’ve decided not to race to climb Big Daddy, we’d never make it to the top in time for sunrise anyway.

Instead we opt to visit Deadvlei, a salt pan in which stand trees one thousand years of age!

These trees died 900 years ago when the climate dried and the dunes cut Deadvlei off from the river. The environment became so arid that the trees couldn’t decompose and instead they have become petrified.

These stark remnants stand black against the white of the pan, the orange of the dunes and the intense blue of the sky, it’s quite a sight!

We return from Deadvlei to Rocky, we have found a spot well away from the hordes and where we have relaxed breakfast and enjoy the view and the sounds of the African bush.

Later in the afternoon, when the heat of the day has subsided somewhat, we visit Sesriem Canyon with Jonathan and Claire.

This is a 30m deep, 3 km long gash in the landscape carved out by the Tsauchab River revealing layers of rock some going back 15 million years - wow!

Today we begin our journey north. We get up early as we want to have enough time to visit the seaside town of Swakopmud before heading to our beach-side campsite a little way further up the coast.

In that period when it's light but the sun hasn't quite made it over the horizon, the landscape is bathed in a bluey hue, it's suspended somewhere between light and dark and is holding its breath before the sunlight floods it with light and another day begins.

This involves retracing some of our steps and we travel once again through the Kuiseb Canyon which looks entirely different coming at it from the opposite direction. We are blown away once more.

Swakopmund is famed for its German architecture. It’s a charming town in which to while away a few hours. We visit the seafront and stop for a beer and then wander over to the craft market behind the lighthouse.

We know we’ll get the full sales patter here from numerous traders but we aren’t disappointed in our expectation that it’ll be good humoured with lots of laughter. We don’t spend much but Janette does invest in a basket work bowl which she’s delighted with but which Nick says looks like a sun hat (thanks Nick!).

Our Namibian friends Mark and Mel have recommended the next overnight stop as it provides the opportunity to camp right on the beach which is rare in this area. We are all really pleased with Windpomp 14, we have an enormous pitch overlooking the sea with it’s own kitchen and bathroom - what’s not to like?

The next day, we all call into the seaside town of Henties Bay for a coffee and to stock up on supplies.

We then head north and stop off to see the Zelia a 400 ton trawler, one of the many shipwrecks that has given this stretch of coastline its name - The Skeleton Coast.

As we continue, the landscape transforms into flat, lifeless desert. We’re heading to the Soutgat Swim Hole, otherwise known as the ‘Dead Sea’ and a place where you can swim in the middle of the Namib Desert!

There is a sign for Soutgat from the road but other than that, it's almost impossible to find as it's hidden away in the desert.

We drive around for a bit and just as we are about to give up, we see another sign and hey presto, we're there!

The former Strathmore South Tin Mine has, over time, filled with underground water which has a very high salt content meaning bathers float with ease. The colour of the water wasn’t looking so inviting, so we give swimming a miss!

In addition to the novelty of the ‘Dead Sea’, the rocks out of which it is carved glitter in the sunlight, it’s really impressive.

We leave with Jonathan and Claire and think that we’ll rendezvous back out on the road. We think that they are travelling parallel to us but strangely we lose radio contact with them really quickly (we have walkie talkies).

We stop to look at the three old graves set in utter isolation out here in the desert. There’s nothing to indicate who lies here and they make rather a forlorn sight.

That small stop off seems to have been our undoing. Claire and Jonathan assume we have gone on ahead to the next campsite and so they keep going.

We wait at the road for them for over an hour and then drive all the way back to the swim hole in case they’ve had an accident or broken down - there’s no sight of them. We can’t call them or they us because there is no mobile signal, we are out of range on our walkie talkies and we are unsure what to do.

We decide to travel to the next campsite because it is 84 miles away and the sun is going down. Nick drives as fast as he dares on the corrugated gravel roads and we watch as the sun sinks lower and lower and then disappears, we now know we won’t make it in daylight.

To our immense relief Jonathan and Claire are already here and we all have a drink to recover!

Moral of the story? Always agree on what the arrangements are for the next leg of any journey to avoid misunderstandings like this - lesson learned!

Our base for the next two nights is Spitzkoppe Rest Camp, a site run by the local community. The site is set over a huge area and each pitch is secluded from the other with its own toilet. This is desert country and water is at a premium and the facilities reflect that fact - the toilet is a long drop which strikes fear into the hearts of even the hardiest among us! It must be said that everything is very clean and hot showers are available at a block near reception so we manage to maintain personal hygiene!

The scenery here is astonishing - huge, orange rocks rise up out of the otherwise flat landscape. The rocks are granite and very rounded and put us in mind of bread dough or cake mixture! The area is made up of three of these formations - Big and Little Spitzkoppe and the Pontok Mountains and was the result of the same volcanic activity which split Africa and South America off from each other 140 million years ago.

This is an area which has been inhabited by humans for thousands of years and the San people have left their marks in the form of rock art. We’re keen to go to see some, which requires a guide so as to prevent Joe Public tramping all over these ancient sites.

We pitch up at the allotted place only to discover that a steep climb is involved over rocks. In fact the climb is so steep and the rocks so slippery in places that you have to haul yourself up by pulling on a chain - Janette doesn’t like heights and this is not her idea of a fun time but the allure of the rock art is too great so she forces herself to make the climb.

Our guide is very informative and tells us that the ancient people were short in stature and so the paintings are low down on the rock face and that they made sure to paint in sheltered spots to preserve the paintings from the effects of sun and rain. They apparently created white paint by using dried urine mixed with a poisonous plant and red paint by mixing animal blood and fat with rock dust.

Our guide also tells us that the pictures were intended to inform those that came after about what animals lived in the area, the direction of water and suchlike.

We learn about how the ancient people hunted animals which is depicted in these paintings and how they communicated whilst hunting using a series of clicks (which he very impressively demonstrates) so as not to alert the prey to their presence.

This evening is magical, we have a barbecue and then light a campfire. Our pitch has a natural huge fireplace and the flames flicker against the rock as we sit in the still of the evening.

The rocks are close - we’re surrounded by them - but at night as we sit around the fire, they loom out of the darkness standing sentinel over us and it’s then that we most feel ourselves transported back in time to the days of those rock artists.

We feel small and insignificant against these mighty rocks that have looked on while generation upon generation have come and gone, whilst they themselves remain unchanged.