Transfer to Sossouvlei Lodge and the Namib Desert: 3/5

 We started our trip with a visit to a vast graveyard of unmarked tombs that is a memorial to some of the thousands of Herero and Nama people who were slaughtered by the Germans between 1904 and 1908. The Germans had developed a colony here called German South West Africa 20 years earlier, but the tribes rose up against their overlords to protest the taking of their land and cattle. In retaliation, the Germans exterminated 80% of the Hereros and 50% of the Namas. Reparations were finally agreed to in the 2020s, but it is questionable whether the survivor's decendants will ever see it.

This is the neat German part of the cemetary

These photos are the native cemetary areas
and the monument to the genocide.

The bus ride started on somewhat bumpy paved roads, but mostly relied on even bumpier dirt/gravel roads, sometimes with extensive washboarding. They call this type of drive an African Massage.

The geological uplift is very apparent here.

There is a lot of nothing on this drive.

We finally arrived at the Sossouvlei Lodge, which has a collection of individual cabins, some, like ours, with a direct view of their huge reserve. It is a very dry time, so there wasn't a lot of wild life wandering around for us to see.