The featured image looks north/ish from Kulala Desert Lodge to the nearest dune on the edge of the Namib Desert’s “sand sea”.
The sand sea’s most easily accessed portion is in this area, which includes Sossusvlei.
As you can see, the dunes are not “lifeless”; as well as being huge and exquisitely formed, their core structure is very much more stable than most people imagine.
The above photo was taken at 7.09 pm on 21 November 2022, 18 minutes before sunset.
Two hours earlier, when looking from the same vantage point, this dune was invisible.
The next photo was taken ten minutes later, looking northwest.
Moisture-shedding clouds had not yet disappeared from our field of view, but – just 8 minutes before it would set on this day in the Sossusvlei region – the sun was about to break through.
I turned around, just as direct sunlight began to advance, then suddenly – briefly – bathed almost the entire landscape.
The next seven minutes provided this astonishing day’s most sublime moments…