Oct 222013
 

Actually, she wasn’t. My travel buddy, Harleigh, was almost to the ridge at this point, which led up to the top of the immense Dune 7. In an earlier post, she was making good progress on two feet, striding up with no problem. Then, it got steeper and she had to use her hands to claw her way up the last few meters.

There were three of us on the dune and we all took different routes. Harleigh got to the top first, I didn’t make it at all (I blame the camera gear).

Girl climbing a sand dune in front of overcast sky in Namibia

Apr 082013
 

Today’s photo is much simpler than my usual, but I think there’s something interesting about it. I wrote about how difficult it was to climb these dunes in this post: The Climb Dune 7 Namibia. Here, another of my travel buddies has selected a route that she decided was easier. At this point you can tell she’s starting to get a bit tired, atop that giant wave of sand.

A girl walking near the top of a giant sand dune at dune 7 in Namibia

Feb 072013
 

Off we drove, into the off road area at Dune 7 in our sub-par 4×4. We picked up speed as we prepared to climb from the hard packed sand at the base to the flowing dunes. Then, we stopped. We were stuck. Fifteen minutes later we dug, rocked and pushed the car out and back down to the hard packed sand. It was time to set off on foot.

Walking on these dunes really isn’t easy. The sand is very soft and it doesn’t take much of a gradient to feel like you’re getting lower down with each step forward you take. As a result, the three of us took off in different directions, attacking what we thought was the easiest route. Harleigh, pictured below, took the direct route up some of the steepest inclines. Her momentum carried her about three quarters of the way to the top, where I was able to catch this photo of her just before she was forced to drop to her hands and knees and drag herself the rest of the way.

I was jealous. As I was carrying two cameras and a tripod I couldn’t used my hands to make the climb without dragging my gear through the sand. I spent quite a while trying different routes until I found a way, using less steep bits, that let me reach the ridge.

Splitting up worked out well for me as I was able to snap a few pictures of the dunes dwarfing the girls and giving a real sense of the immensity of these mountains of sand.

A girl climbing up a steep sand dune at dune 7 in namibia

Jan 272013
 

This is the backside of Dune 7 in Namibia. You can rent quad bikes here, or go sand dune boarding. We decided that rather than do either of these activities we’d take our own 4×4 into the off-road area. It took us about 3 minutes to get stuck on the side of the dune. Thankfully we were able to push it free after digging out the sand around the wheels. After this we stuck to the hard sand until parking it and setting off up the dunes on foot.

Ripples of sand lead to the back side of Dune 7, Namibia in front of a blue sky with fluffy white clouds