Portrait of a Dead Tree, Deadvlei, Namib-Naukluft Park, Namibia

Solitary Tree, Red dune, Deadvlei, Namib-Naukluft Park, Namibia

Solitary Tree
The dead trees of Deadvlei (“Dead Marsh”) in Namibia’s Namib-Naukluft Park, have their own personality.

In Deadvlei, deep inside Namib-Naukluft Park in Namibia, the dead trees have a character all their own. They stand like sentinels in a surreal landscape of red sand and parched white clay that could have been imagined by Salvador Dalí.

I’m in Namibia, in Southern Africa at the moment. The stars are low and bright, the air is cold and clean, and there is no internet in the campsites where I am bedding down – or anywhere else, it would seem! So, this will be short: a brief introduction to Deadvlei, an eerie, much photographed, landscape. (More will follow one day.)

Hundreds of years ago, the Tsauchab River flowed through this area. Shallow pools formed during floods, allowing camel thorn trees to grow. The encroaching sand dunes, growing up to 400 metres tall around the area (more about them one day, too), blocked the river. Over time, the clay pan dried up and water table receded. The camel thorn trees died some 600-700 years ago, but they still stand: sun-burnt, but neither rotted nor decayed. The “Dead Marsh” was formed.

(For those of you interested in such things, I had my polariser on my wide angle lens and a UV filter on my 24-200. Lightroom processing is minimal – I had no time and this place “pops” on its own!)

Entrance sign, Deadvlei, Namib-Naukluft Park, Namibia

Entrance to Deadvlei
Starting out early morning, we drove about 300km across Namibia from Windhoek to Sossusvlei, many of those kilometres over bumpy gravel roads. Early afternoon we arrived at the National Park to be picked up by special four-wheel drives and be driven 5 km over loose, shifting sand. This small sign greeted us, and we walked up and down across the dunes, cameras and tripods in tow.

Sands and Brush, Deadvlei, Namib-Naukluft Park, Namibia

Sands and Brush
Sparse vegetation clings to dunes that ripple around us.

Deadvlei
The former marsh looks small at first – but once you are into it, it extends around the base of the dunes and there are new features at every turn.