Sand dunes in Namibia, slope of Big Mama dune One of the hot spots in Namibia is Sossusvlei and deadvlei, from the campground at the border of the national park, it is a 66 km drive to Sossusvlei, a drive you make just before sunset, when it is freezing cold in the Namibia winter. We arrived just in time and we made a fantastic walk through the dunes. One of the famous dunes in the area is the “Big Mama” (see my yesterday posting) which we climbed as a morning walk. The photo presented shows a part of the slope of the Big Mama dune downwards. We made in May / June 2011 a trip through the southern part of Africa ( RSA, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia) . Thanks for viewing, and your lovely words on my yesterdays posting, a special thanks for those who earmarked the image as favorite; comments are always welcome. Have a very nice day Henk The Sossusvlei area belongs to a wider region of southern Namib with homogeneous features (about 32.000 km²) extending between rivers Koichaband Kuiseb. This area is characterized by high sand dunes of vivid pink-to-orange color, a consequence of a high percentage of iron in the sand and consequent oxidation processes. The oldest dunes are those of a more intense reddish color. These dunes are among the highest in the world; many of them are above 200 metres, the highest being the one nicknamed Big Daddy, about 380 metres high Sossusvlei Sossusvlei is about 66 km past the Sesriem gate. The last 6 km can only be traversed with 4WD vehicles as the concrete road ends and sand begins (the place where the concrete road ends is known as "2x4 parking" as any non-4WD vehicle must stop there). Sossusvlei is a clay pan, of roughly elliptical shape, covered in a crust of salt-rich sand.[1] While the pan has been shaped over time by the Tsauchab river, the actual flooding of the pan is a relatively rare event, and sometimes several years pass between one flood and the next one. The river is dry most of the year, and even when it is not, it carries relatively little water to the vlei. The vlei is surrounded by high orange-reddish dunes, partially covered by a vegetation comprising grass, bushes, and some tree (mostly of species Acacia erioloba). Deadvlei Deadvlei is another clay pan, about 2 km from Sossusvlei. A notable feature of Deadvlei is that it used to be an oasis with several acacia trees; afterwards, the river that watered the oasis changed its course. The pan is thus punctuated by blackened, dead acacia trees, in vivid contrast to the shiny white of the salty floor of the pan and the intense orange of the dunes. This creates a particularly fascinating and surrealistic landscape, that appears in uncountable pictures and that has been used as a setting for films and videos. (info pasted and copied from Wikipedia)