Now driving in proper dunes began. Going down a slip side of a dune looks scarily steep, but in reality is only about 35 degrees. My driver was the only one without sand experience and we struggled in the beginning. The others gave us good advice and after taking some weight off the car by distributing excess water and adjusting the driving style to high refs it worked out ok. However, almost everyone got stuck at least once, even one of the guide’s car. The crew was very experienced and quick in recovery. Luckily, towards the north, where the dunes get higher, the sand was still wet from previous rain and it was relatively easy to drive. The Landrover sometimes got an easier way on a detour and mostly we followed it. On the other hand, some of the others tried how far they could get up a steep dune and sometimes even jumped over the edge as they had too much speed. On the way we visited literally deserted diamond searcher towns, a graveyard in the sand which was uncovered by a storm with human bones scattered all over the place, and a ship wrack from 1910 which nowadays lies 1km away from the coast. We also saw a seal colony and a lot of whale bones left over from former times. Halfway through the desert are some bungalows which form the base of the Oranjemund fishing club. The fishermen come there for a week every now and then. We got some fresh fish from them to cook over the fire in the evening, very delicious! Nearby lives a brown hyena and we were lucky to see her. Here, at the coast, it was windy and misty and sometimes really cold in the evenings. What I enjoyed most on this trip was to be hundreds of kilometres away from any settlement, in the middle of nowhere.
