Day 60: Sosusvlei - Bike Bimble - CycleBlaze

December 1, 2024

Day 60: Sosusvlei

We slept in the campground behind the petrol station. Not as challenging as it sounds – you need to book ahead to secure a spot, of course we hadn’t. They let us stay in the group campground, which had a pool. Bonus! We soaked in this for a while in the afternoon, trying to soak away the memories of sand, corrugations and heat. It was either the soaking or the multiple sandwiches, sausage rolls & bottles of soft drink, but something helped us return to feeling almost human.

Not a great sleep - we were woken a couple of times by a jackal trying to break into the food pannier. They did tip over a couple of the rubbish bins but looks like they didn’t get away with any of our shoes (apparently, they’re known for that in this camp).

Another early start to go and do the tourist thing at Sosusvlei.

We had been told we couldn’t ride the ~65 km in the park (and then back), so we left the bikes with the ranger at the first set of gates at 6 am. The ranger asked the first car that came past if they could give us a lift into the park. They agreed. We were extremely lucky to have met Nigel and Julie. They drove us all around the park and we chatted for about 6 hours, and even shared their breakfast with us. Lucky for us they were such great company! We saw the dead tree in the valley. Several dead trees on the mud flats, and lots of tourists. The tourists thin out rapidly as midday approaches, it’s just too hot to be walking around in the sun.

Nigel and Julie
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Richard SprodWhat an amazing place! Great for a Rogaine maybe?! But I can see more than one dead tree.... Did you climb the sand dune?
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1 month ago
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Bill ShaneyfeltNever imagined gemsbok were so unafraid!

https://www.britannica.com/animal/gemsbok
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1 month ago
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Rachael AndersonWhat a beautiful spot! It’s great you ran into Nigel and Julie.
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1 month ago
Rachael AndersonHow great you decided to take time now to fo this tour while you are still young! We retired 7 years ago and sold our condo and took off on an 8 week cycle tour in Europe which we had planned before we decided to hit the road. We’ve done several long bicycle tours since then and have no plans to settle down.
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1 month ago
Doug GillottTough roads!
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1 month ago
Catherine DockerTo Rachael AndersonHi Rachael, I saw that you have posted a few journals, I look forward to getting round to giving them a read!
We hope to be on the bikes for years yet! Might see you there one day!
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3 weeks ago