We left the mountains and desert and headed toward the coast, to Luderitz. Our guidebook said Luderitz would be sleeping on the weekend. It wasn’t lying.

After a day of gemsbok spotting, we camped at the Tiras Guest Farm. We discovered great rock formations and an animal that lives in them: the hyrax.

Today we meandered through the desert and discovered gemsbok under almost every tree. We also found a specimen of what we thought was a mythical melon.

Our full day in Sesriem and the Namib-Naukluft National Park included a long Big Daddy dune hike, a short Sesriem canyon hike, and loads of photography.

We got in line at the park gate at 7:00 a.m. to rush to Sossusvlei and Dead pans and the Big Daddy dune to get a near bird’s-eye view of the red desert.

Today we journeyed from the mountains of Namib-Naukluft National Park to Sesriem and the red dunes surrounding Sossusvlei, the park’s most popular attraction.