Dwusib & Sesriem - Namibia

From Fish River the plan was to head North West towards the dunes at Sossusvlei. These are part of the Namib national park but you are not allowed to camp there, the nearest campsite is at the parks headquarters at Sesriem, 65km away. There are some upmarket lodges close to Sesriem but these are expensive and more for your Brad Pitts and Angelina Jolies of this world.

Sesriem was full (as always) so we'd booked to camp at the next nearest site at a place called Bethesda, another 40km away. This wasn't ideal by any means as it meant we would have a 200km round journey each time we wanted to visit Sossusvlei plus there would be no chance of getting there for sunrise as they only open the entrance gate at Sesriem before dawn for campers from there, everyone from outside must wait another hour to be allowed in.

By the time we had sorted out the bill at Fish River and reached the main gravel road it was after 1pm and we still had a long way to go to Sesriem so I was already contemplating where best to break the journey if we ran out of time.

It's probably hard for anyone who hasn't been to this part of the world to appreciate the vast distances you need to travel just to get from place to place. All the roads away from the major towns and cities are on gravel, some good, some not so good and whilst picturesque and empty  they tend to stretch out straight for hundreds of kilometres.

The great danger is you get fooled into going too fast which is dangerous, especially in a 4wd where the centre of gravity is higher. Add to this the almost certainty the odd cow, goat or donkey will suddenly wander out onto the road and you have all the ingredients for a bad accident. Many people are badly injured or killed each year overturning their cars on these gravel roads so it's best to be cautious, take it easy and pack in well before dark if possible.

Sure enough by 5.30pm we were still a 100 miles or so from Sesriem and could not get there before dark. Luckily, however, we were not far from a place called Dwusib which is famous (well in Namibia that is) for its castle. If you have ever read the book the Africa House about Shiwa Ng'andu in Zambia then the history of Dwusib is somewhat similar.

The mock castle, which is more like a country house, was built by an ex German Army Officer who came out to the German colony of South West Africa (as Namibia was then) at the turn of the 20th Century to be an officer in the police force. He fell in love with the area around Dwusib and decided to resign to try his hand at horse breeding. Whilst on a visit back to Germany he met a rich heiress, married her and returned to Namibia where over some years they built Dwusib Castle and lived like lords of the manor.

In 1914 they were on a trip to Argentina to buy horses when WW1 broke out and they were interned for a while. Once they got out he re-joined the German army and was promptly killed at the Somme, his widow never returned to Namibia and the castle now stands as an incongruous tribute to their memory.

You can camp in the grounds of the castle so we pulled in for the night. The Castle and camp site are now run by the local community and they do a pretty good job of it, the campsite has some lovely spots under big trees and the ablutions are first rate.

The next morning we did a quick tour of the castle before heading off. It is actually a reverse of the Tardis, looks big on the outside but is in fact quite small inside. From Dwusib it took us over three hours to reach Sesriem so we had definitely made the right decision to stay the night.

Although we were booked to camp at Bethesda we decided to stop off at  Sesriem to see if that was really the case or could we squeeze on. We were gambling that being just after the Easter holiday a lot of people would be leaving - no such luck! The woman ranger told us they had absolutely no vacancies on the main campsite however we could use the overflow campsite if we wished.

This was new news so we asked where the overflow site was then she pointed to a patch of waste ground right outside of their buildings alongside the main road. It was very open with not an ounce of shade, was close to where a generator was constantly running and looked awful and to make matters worse there was no reduction in fees to camp there. Still we needed to consider it for a moment as it was either stay here or face the long journey from Bethesda each day.

Whilst mulling over the options two other cars pitched up to camp, one had a booking the other not, the lucky booked ones just checked in and then drove through the gate onto the site with us looking on enviously. Then to our surprise the other group who had pitched up without a booking also drove through the gate and onto the site - what the hell was going on here?

We went back in the office and asked a different woman ranger what was going on. She confirmed wearily yet again that there was no vacancies so I asked why had they allowed the other group onto the main site without a booking? She then informed us there was yet another overflow site which was part of the main site but near to the bar and ablutions and yes we could camp there if we wished! 

So in the space of 20 minutes we had gone from absolutely no spaces to you can camp outside the gate, to you can camp in the main camp. The location next to the bar didn't endear itself to us as Sesriem gets quite a few overlanders but beggars and all that, we decided to take  it, at least it would save us an 80km round trip from Bethesda.  

We drove in, at least we could now get to the dunes for Sunrise, we were were told the overflow was close to the site number 12 but we couldn't see it anywhere.  At Sesriem each camp site is marked off with a low stone wall around the site, some have numbers showing some not, most where occupied but some looked empty presumably waiting for their owners to arrive.

We drove around searching then I noticed the vehicle who had entered whilst we were waiting and who had a booking were setting up camp on a large space which suspiciously looked like it could be the overflow site. We stopped and asked if this was the overflow site and it was but then they said they had booked a proper site but been given site number 11 which was far too small as they were expecting some friends to arrive and they would be five vehicles in total so they had just decided to move to the larger overflow site and take it over. However, we could have their booked site number 11 if we wanted, we just needed to inform the rangers.

This was getting even better, we felt like we had just got a seat upgrade to club class! We sought out site 11 and it was small but fine for us so we decided to leave Carol and Tanya to guard the site whilst Sue and I drove back to change the booking.

Instead of going back the way we came we decided to go out via the further reaches of the camp ground to try and locate the site we had stayed on 10 years before and to just to see if any others around here looked available. This is where the high numbered sites in the 20' are located and is by far the best place to be if you can get it, the only disadvantage, if you can call it one, is your well away from the ablutions, bar and pool.

In the 90s they used to put the overlanders down here to keep them away from the people who wanted some peace and quiet but clearly the powers to be had felt the stunning views to the dunes were wasted on the truckers so they had reversed the plan and designated the overlanders on sites near to the bar. 

All of these plum sites were occupied including the one we had used on our last visit but then we noticed an empty site way off away from the rest out towards the desert, we drove up to take a look. The site hadn't existed when we were last here and it had no number on it but it was clearly a proper site, even though it had no wall or water tap like the others did.

We were intrigued, if this was available then it would be perfect so on the way back we saw one of the local workers and pointing to the site in the distance I asked what site number it was?  He laughed and said it was site 28 (the last in the series) but it was known as the 'off road site' as it was considered remote.

When we got back to the office we explained about the people not taking site 11 and they said we could we have it. After some disbelief that we weren't making the story up and checking we had given them the other campers right names they agreed we could take it over, happy days!

As she started to change the booking details we took a quick look at the site allocations and saw that number 28 had no name against it. Deciding to push our luck we asked if that was also available, she said "but that's the off road site! are you interested in that one?" and looked at me as if we must be mad to even contemplate it!   It was available and joy of joys we could have it for the next two nights!

It had taken over two hours of tooing and froing buts it's amazing what perseverance can bring, it was like arriving for a flight to find it's fully booked then getting a seat at the back next to the bogs, then getting an upgrade to club class then to first class!

We raced back to Carol and Tanya to tell them the good news, Carol was a bit concerned about the long walk to the loo's but the stunning location overrode this (as it happens we found a basic loo closer to the camp anyway) so we set up camp, now we could relax and enjoy the scenery and get ready for the 5am start to reach the dunes for sunrise!

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