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namibia

Into Dust (Part One)

By Carolyn Chon

June 16^th, 2019

Forever and a day.

That's how long it felt the last time I breathed in new air, stepped onto new land and felt that grandeur rush of a feeling of newness and excitement in a new place. Sure, we see new places time and again, but that first time feeling doesn't come by all the time, not for me at least.

With only two weeks of travel time allocated, it was a decision between Argentina, US or Namibia. All of which would have also been a new continent that I were to venture in. Somehow, Namibia was an easy decision.

south bound - sesriem

My first destination was to the famous Sossuvlei Desert. This would be my first and last place where I had a personal guide and didn't need to drive myself. I figured it was the right thing to do, instead of picking up my rental on the first day I arrive in a foreign land - let alone having to deal with flight fatigue.

The drive down to the Sesriem settlement was nice, it was also a nice gentle introduction to the types of road I would be driving on the next two weeks. As we were on our way, Raymond my lovely guide told me that I had been upgraded to a nicer lodge and that it even has a private pool. I thought I must've heard wrongly or that he was pulling my legs and so I carried on asking him as many questions that I could about himself and Namibia.

We made a turn into a little arched guard post from the main road and drove for about another half an hour worth of rock filled bumpy road, but it was also then I had my first sightings of wildlife. I first saw Zebras from a distance and they looked almost like the cheap plastic toys most kids have. Then I spotted Curly, Larry and Moe, showing me their asses and by the stooges, I mean Oryxes.

the desert grace

Turned out that Raymond wasn't pulling my legs.

Upon arriving at the reception, I was greeted with a smile, a cold towel and a pink slushy drink to cool down. The reception was also their shop or perhaps their souvenir shop which was really nicely designed. Best thing was that I arrived at the peak of magic hour, so you can imagine to my absolute pleasant surprise how wonderful it was.

The lodge, aptly named The Desert Grace is one of the many lodges that belongs to Gondwana Collection. They have a number of lodges all around Namibia and some in Botswana too. It was really nice to have started off my trip in a luxury lodge or maybe it wasn't, the trip should've ended with it perhaps.

My favourite part about the lodge was definitely how the evening sunlight would spill into the room and set the room aglow with that gorgeous warmth. Photos does not do justice to the level of niceness it was for me. The other thing I liked was also how there were many pink accents within the entire lodge and it was actually a reflection of the colours that nature provided when the sun would set.

sossusvlei

Next morning, we left the lodge at around 530am to make our way to Sossusvlei, we wanted to get there early as usually there would be a line of cars waiting for the gate to open. Though it was a rather cloudy morning, the light was pretty sweet.

The wind was pretty strong that morning and for me it was really nice to see the tip of the sand dunes being blown away (literally). Mind you, my shots may not have people in the photos but be rest assured that there are plenty of people. So, be a good boy/girl and get in line early to avoid the tour busses, there will be plenty.

deadvlei

It was surreal seeing Deadvlei in person, though I have to admit the cloudy sky was a bit of a turn off for me. Nevertheless, I took it all in. Raymond told me to take all the time I wanted to and so I did. I found a spot in the middle somewhere, put down my camera and my phone, put on my earphones and played Yuna's Forevermore and Maggie Roger's Alaska on repeat. Both were on my Namibian road trip playlist, heh.

What made it surreal for me though was definitely because of Tarsem Singh's The Cell, obviously. I remember the first time I watched it and thought to myself, damn...what a freaking beautiful contrast of imagery.

There were also some desert adapted Oryxes roaming around, also included a shot of the Pied Crow and the Greater Kestrel.

big daddy

Instead of starting the desert tour with Big Daddy (which most tour group does), we started with Deadvlei and ended with Big Daddy because well, Raymond knew better. Always go against peak hour! What made it extra nice was that Raymond and I had brunch under a shade at the bottom of Big Daddy!

p/s walking up a sand dune is a freaking pain!

see you soon sesriem!

Next morning, we headed back towards Windhoek early so that I could pick up my rental and begin my road trip. On our way out, we saw a couple of Black Back Jackals (who apparently are monogamous) and an epic sunrise. All the photos of the sunrise are not edited!