[Namibia] Chapter III: In which a sandstorm takes place which seems likely to cost no one dear

At last, after four days of rest and recuperation in Windhoek while waiting for our rental vehicle to be ready, we drove out onto real rural Namibia. Hundreds of kilometres of nothing but gravel road, rolling over bush-studded plains, through steep mountain passes, and across flat barren deserts extending to all horizons. Hundreds of monotonous kilometres almost only to ourselves, broken every now and then by a unique happenstance, be it a lone car racing amid

clouds of dust in the other direction, a nondescript intersection leading as often as not to Rehoboth, a solitary farmhouse far in the distance, a shady tree signposted well in advance lest one misses it, a herd of oblivious baboons crossing the road to get to the other side, or even once a pair of mad cyclists apparently intent on crossing Namibia on their heavily laden bicycles.

Our first destination: Sossusvlei.

As luck would have it, on the very same day that we visited Sossusvlei, another more noteworthy traveller did the same: a sandstorm. Probably not the largest of sandstorms frequenting the region by far, but remarkable enough for us foreigners nonetheless. Gone were the picture-perfect red sand dunes framed against cloudless skies of azure, replaced instead by a grey veil of swirling dust obscuring all views, and by yellowish brown clouds of minute sand grains, twirling from dune to dune, vengefully stinging any humanoids foolish enough to venture forth and stand in the way of their mating dance, striving to transmute them into shambling sand creatures by filling their every orifice and covering their every surface -- exposed or unexposed -- with sand.

Accommodations:
- Agama River Camp (2 nights; an ok campsite)

Photo captions: (a-b) 0ur car; (c-d) nests; (e-h) Namibian landscape; (i-j) Dune 45 at the height of the storm and later in the day; (k-m) Sossusvlei in a sandstorm; (n-p) Dead Vlei; (q-r) Sesriem Canyon; (s) an oryx; (t) tree reported ahead; (u-v) Namibian desert sunset