Entering Surreal

Images of the Sossusvlei dunes and the dark silhouettes of the dead trees in the nearby Deadvlei have haunted me for years. I remember the first time I saw a picture from the Deadvlei thinking that it was made up. It was just too perfect. And abstract.

Reaching the place on a freezing morning after a very early rise we watched the scenery gain contours as the sun was rising from behind the dunes. Entering the Deadvlei it felt like entering another world, a surreal world, lifeless and still, with few colours and perfect lines and shapes.

How to define the perfect curve? You'd say that perfection doesn't exist in reality but only as a target to aim for. Is there such a thing as the perfect curve? My answer is yes, it exists. And it exists in many variations in the sea of dunes at Sossusvlei. Abstract scenery, apparently lifeless.

The extremely fine sand is a deep sienna red due to the richness in iron oxide. The so-called desert varnish, a dark colouring of the sand in some areas, is due to other oxides existing there. And last but not least the different shades in colouring are due to some microorganisms which absorb moisture from the air at night and release it during the day. The desert is so complex that there is a whole science around it. A fascinating science it must be, but I prefer the fascination of its colours and shapes and contrasts and the mystery it preserves.

There is a sense of timelessness when you look from the top of a dune over the sea of dunes surrounding you. Breathtaking! It is a very harsh environment but undoubtly compensating in beauty for its inhospitability.
You won't see many animals around other than the scarabs climbing up and down the dunes. The ridges - at least the ones easily accessible from the dirt road - get scarred only by human footprints yet, fortunately, they will fade away soon with the wind.

In the Deadvlei I felt like courting every single tree. Of course I couldn't do it, for several reasons: first it was freezing in the morning, then the crowds arrived, then it was scorching hot, then we had to go because it was late :-) But I took it all in, those images have forever impregnated my mind and soul.

We spent an afternoon, a whole day and then another morning at the dunes. We were the exceptions, the weirdos who got there first in the morning and left last, who didn't get enough of this abstract geometry and surreal environment.

Like everybody else we had to walk up dunes and gain a bird's view of the area from the top. Mind-blowing. Picnic on top of a dune? Why not? It was fantastic. And the run straight down the dunes was another great experience, too. Barefoot, up to your ankles in the deep fine hot sand you would let gravity help and run, run, run down. And again you learned a lesson you knew about, but ignored. How deceiving this environment is, how distorted your perception. What looked like a few meters away turned out to be in the hundreds, what looked like a 30 seconds run down took minutes. And down on the flat white scorched Deadvlei there was a small lake... No there wasn't, of course, but the desert mirage was there, perfect, with all the dead trees reflected as if by the silvery surface of a lake.

The first afternoon we got there we didn't leave until dusk. And we were surprised and rewarded by a perfect full moon rising from behind the dunes. A full pale moon over an abstract scenery. We were in awe and stayed in awe for the following couple of days until we finally pulled ourselves together and continued our trip further North.