Scenes from the road – Sossusvlei to Walvis Bay

We said goodbye to Sossusvlei and once again hit the road, this time heading north.  We enjoyed our packed breakfast as we made our way to our next lodge for the night, Rostock Ritz.

Along the way we stopped at a little outpost called Solitaire for lunch.  This place also claims to have the best apple pie in Namibia and also has an eclectic collection of old vehicles scattered around the property. While they pulled off the Route 66 kind of vibe much better than Helmeringhausen they didn’t have the best apple pie.  In our group of 6 it was unanimous, Helmeringhausen had the better of the 2.

After lunch we continued heading north to Rostock.  Along the way we stopped to see a couple of homes made entirely from recycled materials.

Across the road from one of these homes was a beautiful bamboo gate to nowhere…

Our next stop was to see a very large Euphorbia Virosa, a poisonous cactus common throughout Namibia.  The branches contain a milky white substance that is poisonous; it is used by the San bushman to coat the tips of their arrows and thus kill their prey more effectively.  This particular one is said to be the largest one in Africa, it was well over 6 feet tall!

As we were driving up the very long road to our lodge, there were a lot of circles on the ground.  Known as “Fairy Circles” they are in fact created by the lowly sand termite.

The rooms at the Rostock Ritz are very unique.  It was a great spot to spend an afternoon and just relax.

The next morning saw us up very early and back on the road.  Along the way to Walvis Bay we stopped for some early morning photos…

There is something really special about arriving somewhere you’ve never been when its still dark and watching the unforgettable scene ahead of you reveal itself as the sun slowly rises in the sky…

This canyon was beautiful.  It was very windy (again), but we stayed there photographing until the warm light of sunrise was gone.

As we were leaving there were 3 Ludwig Bustards in the tall bushman grass, their heads barely visible above the sea of yellow.

The rest of the drive to Walvis Bay was very flat and boring, but the wind was blowing and there were a few times with almost whiteout conditions on the road from the blowing sand.  We made it to Walvis Bay in time for a very nice lunch and another relaxing afternoon before our big day on the dunes tomorrow…