Today we woke with much anticipation – it was finally time to cross the dune belt that has been our constant companion on the right-hand side of the road.
Luciano took a bit of time to teach us how to drive dunes during our stay at Bosluisbaai. A modern 4×4 vehicle can generally do much more than you’d expect of it; but that does not make it any less nerve wrecking – especially if you can’t afford a new one after every trip!
I drive mostly on intuition, but dunes are a bit different and there are some very important concepts and considerations that need to be taken into account. It sounds serious, and it is. Doing the wrong things can result in injuries and death. A quick google will show quite a few unfortunate examples of this in Namibia. This is such an important topic, that I will dedicate a separate future blog post to it.
If you are lucky enough to be on this trip, though, you have the advantage of an experienced guide that will help you through the dunes. We had yet another advantage: we were a very small group of only three vehicles. I can only imagine the effort required when guiding a dozen or so vehicles – but in such cases there are more guides involved, helping the front and rear sections of the convoy.
There are different types of dunes – if this is of interest to you, further reading is available here. For the purposes of this post, you need to know that many (my guess would actually be most) of the dunes in the Namib have slip-faces. That is, they are rounded on one side, but when you get to the top, there is a slip-face that descends steeply. If you overshoot the dune, you are going to be airborne, so this is dangerous. Always approach the top with respect (slowly, but not so slow as to get stuck).
But on the point of getting stuck – everyone gets stuck. It’s not a big thing, but be prepared for it. Have some proper ropes with rated shackles – the forces involved are enormous and flying pieces of shrapnel kills people. Most of all, never, ever use your towbar for recovery, that is not what it was made for. I am talking about the actual ball at the back, the harness might be suitable for recovery but know where your recovery points are, before leaving on the trip. By the way, regardless of which vehicle you drive daily, it is still good to know where the recovery points for your car are – please check the manual.
Another important point that is not always very intuitive, is not to turn when you ascend a dune. Drive straight up, when you need to go back reverse straight down. The length of a vehicle can handle angles up to 45 degrees, but the moment you turn sideways this number decreases to about 35 degrees. So, if you go up a 40 degree incline and you turn sideways, your vehicle will roll down the dune.
The last point is to not underestimate the amount of fuel your vehicle will use crossing the dunes. Even though the actual distance is quite short, you will use fuel. I reset my consumption meter before starting the dunes, and watched it climb all the way to 38l/100km (the exception and worst case scenario for a diesel, hopefully!)
But enough preaching about dangers – the reality is that dune driving was probably my favourite part of this trip – it is a lot of fun, even if you do it really responsibly.
And then, just like that, the far-away dunes on the horison slowly changed into rocky structures, the ground got harder, and we were back on terra firma.
We crossed over into Kaokoland, and it was time to have a little something to eat, and calm the nerves.
In the classic Jamie Uys film, “The Gods must be crazy”, M’Pudi calls the Land Rover he is working on, “The Antichrist”. Our vehicles were much better behaved, but I must admit that every time I opened the hatch, it looked as if the antichrist was let loose in the back of the back of my bakkie in a fit of fury. They say you live and learn, and I definitely learnt the value of having a drawer system on this trip. Or rather, I should say I learnt how horrible it is without one.
We still had quite a way to go to get to our camp, which was in the Hartmansvallei. The landscape, once again, took a few dramatic turns. One moment it was hard with pointy rocks sticking up like little soldiers with tyre-bayonets, and then we were back to the powdery sand that wants to suck your chassis into the earth.
Along the way, we met our first of “The lone men of Kaokoland”. There are roughly fifty of these sculptures scattered throughout the region. They add to the mystery of the landscape, and creates some anticipation as to when you’ll see another. They are numbered, but unfortunately I didn’t get this little guys’ credentials. Rest assured, he was almost at the top and soon he’ll be able to walk upright again.
Our campsite tonight was probably the most scenic of all the sites we’ve been. You’re camped in the Hartmansvallei, surrounded by rocks and silence. I tried my level best to capture the beauty of the environment, but I can only hope better photographers can do it more justice than my simple pictures.
We had yet another gorgeous sunset, and tomorrow we’ll set off to Purros – and the end of this journey. Remember to check the gallery for more pics!
Skeleton Coast 2025 #1: Introduction
Skeleton Coast 2025 #2: Getting there
Skeleton Coast 2025 #3: Swakopmund – old German charm
Skeleton Coast 2025 #4: Through the mist to somewhere north of Terrace Bay
Skeleton Coast 2025 #5: Up towards Angra Fria
Skeleton Coast 2025 #6: Towards and at Bosluisbaai
Skeleton Coast 2025 #7: Across the dune belt and into Hartmansvallei
Skeleton Coast 2025 #8: Down to Purros and Sesfontein