If you just only have time to see one thing in Namibia, make it the red desert dunes of Sossusvlei.
It’s a big call considering the whole country is remarkably beautiful, but there aren’t many places on earth that boast a landscape quite as unique as this one inside the Namib-Naukluft National Park.
Few words can describe how it feels as you stand before a towering orange sand dune stretching some 300m towards the bright blue sky, walk amongst 900-year-old fossilised Acacia trees in the large white clay pan of Deadvlei, or touch the shifting sands of the world’s oldest desert, the Namib.
The best time to see the dunes in all their glory is at sunrise, when the light coming from the east paints them in vivid black and orange contrasts. Get your exercise in by climbing the most accessible, Dune 45 at sunrise, then tour Deadvlei or Big Daddy in the late afternoon, when the golden light again illuminates the area in all its magnificence.