Around Sossusvlei

Forty minutes in, you stop checking the clock. The road runs dead straight at a horizon that refuses to move, grass to the left, grass to the right, a camelthorn every few kilometres. An oryx stands on the verge and turns its head. That is the whole show.

Namibia counts in hours, not kilometres. The next fuel pump after Sesriem stands 85 kilometres north in Solitaire, and from there it is another 260 kilometres to Swakopmund, nearly all of it gravel. It sounds like effort. It is also exactly why these drives stay with people: nothing happens on them, and you see a great deal while it does not.

Sossusvlei is rarely the point of a trip. It is usually one stage on a longer loop, so the real question is not what else to see here but which way you turn on the third morning. North takes you through Solitaire to the coast, east into the Naukluft Mountains and on to Windhoek, south along the NamibRand towards Lüderitz and the deep south.

Solitaire

85 kmnearest fuel and bakery, heading north

Windhoek

342 kmdirect route, 4.5 to 5 hours

Swakopmund

350 kmvia the C14, about 5.5 hours

Lüderitz

467 kmanother source gives about 500 km

Gravel roads

80 km/h at mostrecommended pace, 100 on tar

One place is missing from that list on purpose: the Fish River Canyon in the south, about 161 kilometres long, up to 27 kilometres wide and up to 550 metres deep. We found no documented driving distance to it from Sesriem. Travellers who include it tend to reach it from Lüderitz or on the way to South Africa, not as an outing from the dunes.

• 
  Within reachSesriem

  The junction outside the park gate: barrier, fuel pump, campsite, then plain.

• 
  Within reachSolitaire

  Fuel, pie, keep driving: the best known roadside stop in Namibia.

• Day tripNaukluft Mountains

  Rock instead of sand, with trails from ten to 120 kilometres.

• 
  Day tripNamibRand Nature Reserve

  Overgrazed sheep farms turned into one of Africa's largest private reserves.

• Day tripDuwisib Castle

  A historicist castle from 1908, now a museum and a place to sleep.

• On the waySwakopmund

  Five and a half hours north, and 35 degrees turn into 18.

• On the wayLüderitz and Kolmanskop

  The diamond town the desert took back, a good 460 kilometres south west.

Fuel, tyres and why nobody drives after dark

Two filling stations matter in this corner of Namibia: the one at Sesriem beside the outer park gate and the one in Solitaire, 85 kilometres north. Solitaire and its shop are described as the only supply point between Walvis Bay and Windhoek, and equally between Walvis Bay and the dunes. Coming from Windhoek, it is the last dependable pump before the desert. Which gives self drivers a simple rule: fill the tank whenever a pump appears, however much is still in it.

The second thing is tyres. On Namibian gravel, a puncture is the most common breakdown of all, caused by sharp stones, thorns, overloading and tyres running hot from the extra rolling resistance. Carry a spare that is ready to use, and for remote stretches several guides suggest a second one. On collection day, check that the jack and the wheel brace are actually in the car.

The recommended pace is 80 kilometres per hour on gravel and 100 on tar, even though national roads allow 120. That sounds slow. Work with it anyway: 350 kilometres to Swakopmund means five and a half hours, and that sum only comes out with breaks and without a puncture.

Then there is the dark. The outer Sesriem gate closes at sunset, so the park is out of reach after that in any case. Beyond it, what stands on the verge by day lies on the road or jumps into it by night: oryx, springbok, ostriches, jackals. None of these roads carries a single street light. Plan your legs so that you arrive an hour before sunset.

Our tipPut the long leg on the morning after your dune day. You are awake at six regardless, the first hours are cool to drive, and you reach Solitaire at an hour when there is coffee and pie. Set off at midday instead and you arrive on the coast in the dark.