Explore Sossusvlei on a guided nature drive

Sossusvlei is known for its soaring sand dunes but there’s much more to discover on a nature drive. Head out with an experienced local guide from your lodge to explore the Namib Desert’s endless shifting sands. It might look barren but the desert is actually home to all kinds of wildlife that’s adapted to survive in this unforgiving environment. The landscapes are great for photography, ranging from orange-red sands to moon-like gravel plains and scorched yellow grass.

Morning nature drives will normally start at dawn, allowing you to watch the sunrise. Afternoon drives are the perfect way to end the day with drinks, watching the sunset over the desert.

During the drives, your guide will help you spot game like springbok, oryx and zebra, as well as hyenas and perhaps rarer creatures like the Karoo bustard and Grant’s golden mole. The dunes are an ecosystem all of their own, teeming with insects and reptiles you wouldn’t normally spot without an expert eye. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to see a cute gecko or chameleon.

Then there’s the desert vegetation, which includes bony camelthorn trees, like the ones you’ll see in famous Deadvlei, succulents and bushes bearing yellow Nara melons. Near the coast, there are huge lichen fields that bloom in the rainy season and with help from Atlantic Ocean fog. Your guide will be on the lookout for the iconic welwitschia, which is known as the living fossil plant because it can live for thousands of years.