After visiting the capital Windhoek we headed to Sossusvlei one of Namibias main tourist attractions. This is where you see the very red/orange sands on all the pictures and postcards of Namibia and a very isolated place. The dunes are part of the oldest and driest eco systems on earth. Unlike the ancient dunes of the Kalahari, those of the Namib are dynamic, which means that they shift with the wind and are continuously sculpted into a variety of distinctive shapes.

The Namibian Wildlife Resorts campsite at a place called Sesrium is the nearest place you can stay before the dunes and is reached by a long 267k drive down a gravel road. From here campers rise at 5 a.m. and drive either 65k to Sossuvlei or 45k to 150m high Dune 45 which is what we did. I set the alarm on my phone at 5 and we got up. Peter went to the shoers block and came back and said nobody else was up. this was because it was only 4 a.m. and I had set the alarm wrong!!!

At 5 a.m. we set off still in the dark to Dune 45 and started to climb just as it started to get light. It wasn't an easy task and it took us 25 minutes to clumb the every shifting sand right on the tip of the dune. the climb was more than worth it as the view right across the dunes when the sun came up was amazing. The whole dessert suddenly turned a burnt orange and for a keen photographer the colours and shadows across the dunes was awesome. When we got back to camp to get our things a sandstorm had blown up and everything was completely buried under 2 ins of sand.