The alarm clock rang at 5 am yesterday morning. It was still dark outside, but the first birds were already singing. Why do we get up so early? Because we wanted to be in Sossusvlei as early as possible to see the dunes and the lake in the morning light. Strengthened only with an Ovaltine, we set off on February 5, 2021 at 5.30 am to tackle the sixty kilometers.

Soon the sky in the east began to turn red. Since we were alone on the road, I drove with parking lights to better experience the awakening of the day. We met a group of springboks that lived up to their name. Later a group of oryx crossed our path. And then the dune ridges on the left and right of the road began to turn reddish. We watched how the shadows gave way to the light and how day came – a beautiful one in Namibia!

After a short detour to Sossusvlei, where the dunes were reflected in the lake in the morning light, we drove back a few kilometers. I grabbed a bottle of water and the binoculars, Brigitta shouldered her Nikon and off we went. We trudged through a depression that was recently filled with water and climbed over a few sand dunes. And then the Deadvlei was below us. Seldom have we felt so alive …

PS. The name Deadvlei fits: The trees that stand in this depression surrounded by dunes have been dead for a long time. They look as if they were modeled on a Dali picture …