The enormous sand dunes around Sossusvlei are one of the images of Namibia that are widely used, and its easy to see why.  The dunes are enormous, and are a spectacular sight, particularly in the early morning when you can sit and watch the dunes change colour and the shadows move as the sun rises.

Travelling to Sossusvlei involves visiting the MET (Ministry of Environment and Tourism) office at Sesriem to obtain an entry permit.  Sesriem is the entry to this part of the Namib-Naukluft national park, and there is a petrol station here as well as the MET office.  The road from there to Sossusvlei has in recent years been upgraded to a tar road which takes you to within a short distance of the dunes.  The road ends at a car park which has trees for shade, toilet facilities, and is the furthest you can go in a 2WD vehicle – beyond this point is strictly for 4WD vehicles, but you can walk from the carpark to the dunes and the pans – the nearest pan is only around 500 metres beyond the car park, but walking to the furthest pan (Sossusvlei itself) can take around an hour, so if you do decide to walk in, take some water with you.

Near to Sesriem itself is Sesriem canyon – a narrow canyon carved in the Sandstone by the Tsauchob river and for much of the year the canyon contains pools of water.  Visitors can walk down into the canyon.