Namibia's signature image — dead camel thorn trees black against a white clay pan and a wall of orange dune — is Deadvlei, next door to Sossusvlei in the world's oldest desert. The dunes here are the planet's tallest; Big Daddy takes an hour of two-steps-forward climbing and repays it with the run back down. Stay inside the park gate at Sesriem so you reach the dunes at first light, before the heat and the convoys. June to August is coolest.
Featured in Ten desert adventures worth the sand in your boots · Adventure