6th March, 1990
The Namib Desert, reputedly the oldest in the world, is known as the Sand Sea. It stretches from the seasonal Kuiseb River to the perennial Orange River, the border with South Africa. From above, it presents a varied display of colours and textures: beige sand streaked with riverbeds; red sand scarred with massifs of black rock; areas swept completely flat, others rippling with tumultuous dunes.
The Tsauchab is a seasonal river that never reaches the sea. We dropped down to 500 feet to follow is broad valley to where is empties in the very heart of the desert at a place called Sossusvlei. In the rainy season, it forms a remote greenish lake tucked between half-moon sand dunes 300 metres high. A solitary oryx had come down to drink and a couple of male ostriches strutted through the hostile landscape, bearing their bouffant black bodies with poise, as if they were exuberant hats.
From Freedom of the Skies
Glimpses of the journey:
- Around the world
- Crossing the Atlantic
- Saint Louis, Senegal
- Bubaque, Guiné-Bissau
- Timbuktu, Mali
- Cottars’ Camp, Kenya
- Virungas National Park, Zaire
- Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe
- Sossusvlei, Namíbia
- Lumbo, Mozambique
- Antananarivo Madagascar
- Adis Ababa, Ethiopia
- Misfat, Omã
- Jaipur, India
- Himalaia, Nepal
- Mae Hong Son, Thailand
- Bario, Sarawak, Malaysia
- Borobodur, Java, Indonesia
- Baliem Valley, Irian Jaya
- Gimbat, Australia
- Munda, New Georgia, Solomon Islands
- Hurricane in Apia, Western Samoa
- Anaa, Tuamotu, Polynesia
- Easter Island, Chile
- Crossing the Andes, Chile-Argentina
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
