Soussusvlei | The Bucket Lust

In the past few months, I’ve had more than a few friends post new and exciting things for me to add to my bucket list. Two of my friends managed to find the same website and send it to me. It was called “25 places that seem unreal but are actually real”. These places are INCREDIBLE looking. And now, obviously, I’m stuck adding another 25 amazing places to my travel list… It’s simply never ending!
One of these 25 places happens to be in Namibia. Just south of the Tropic of Capricorn, the place is called Soussusvlei. Soussusvlei is an old, dried up marshland in the middle of the desert. I imagine it was once an amazing oasis in an otherwise dry world.
At some point, however, the marshland dried up, the ground hardened and the trees died. The incredible thing is, that the ground hardened into a rock hard clay, and the trees that died remained upright. They now sit, blackened and eerily twisted in the middle of a clay field, backdropped by massive orange sand dunes. The place is out if this world.
Yes, I agree with Falafel: “it’s just dead trees Hairy, what is so exciting?” It is just dead trees. But they are beautiful in their own unique way, and Kelsi and I were like two kids in a candy shop waiting to explore them.
The two of us literally ran towards the field of dead trees. We only had a half an hour to take photos! We needed every last second.
My recently newfound love for photographing trees kicked in BIG time in Soussusvlei; these are the most unique trees I’d seen all trip! Pretty much there is no great way to describe them, which is why I’m just going to upload photos and let you see yourselves.
Even with a full 30 minutes, Kelsi and I felt rushed for photo time. We had way too much fun climbing and jumping and trying to take the most ridiculous, or the most artistic shot we could think of. Unfortunately, our group didn’t share the same enthusiasm for dead tree trunks, and so, we were dragged back to the bus. All in all, the trip was worth it! We got some great shots of both the trees and the desert, and stopped at a sand dune called Dune 45 to take photos and climb on our way back to camp. Gina and I decided we’d had enough running around for one day and relaxed in the shade while Kelsi climbed the sand dune. I think it was a lot further up than she expected, as she came hobbling barefoot around the back side of the dune a half hour later, hot and exhausted from the trek. Just another exciting day in Namibia, and a newly added bucket list item completed!