Sesriem Campsite - NWR — Hotel in Hardap

For me this was a great affordable access point for sunrise Deadvlie photography. By staying in the camp you are inside the first park gate and you can get into the park 1 hour before sunrise vs. at sunrise for those outside the park gate. Staying here or at the lodge within the second gate (which is expensive but let’s you get in whenever you want) are the only ways to get the sunrise pics. Below are some helpful tips that I wish I knew in advance (in addition to the basics in travel forums). First, the rangers / front desk will tell you that you can’t get to Deadveli at sunset or sunrise given the gate times. They’ll actually say “you can’t” and “you need to stop at Dune 45” as if it’s a hard rule or physically cut off; nobody physically stopped anyone to my knowledge and it’s likely to discourage people from driving too fast in the AM or getting stuck in the sand too late in the day in the PM. You can safely make it if you have a 4x4 and move quickly. However, you need to be there right when the gate opens and you need to drive quickly. It’s a 65km drive and a 10-20 minute walk to Deadvlie from the parking lot. This doesn’t include time to deflate your tires if you drive yourself the final 5km in 4x4 (I don’t think everyone did this but we did as we didn’t want to get stuck and only have one morning to get our pics). Run the math and you can make it, but you won’t be following the posted speed limit (as if anyone in Namibia does anyways). Second, you don’t really need to be there exactly at sunrise. This through me off. The sun needs to make it over Big Daddy to illuminate Deadvlie. That takes 20-30 minutes. It’s the in between where the magic happens, with the incredible contrasts as the sun makes its way across the landscape. For us the magic happened about 15 minutes after the technical sunrise, when the tips of the tunes starting catching the light, and lasted for about 10 minutes (with the best photos over 5). However, best to get there ASAP as you can’t rewind the sun and most people only stay a day. Third, a lot of people scout spots before and pic a tree / frame for their ideal pic. It’s a great strategy, but I was most impressed by photographers who follow the sun around the horseshoe of dunes and capture pictures as the sun rises and gives you different looks. I followed them and some of my favorite pictures weren’t planned. Lastly, you can’t get every pic and unless you have multile cameras you’ll have to make some sacrifices on which lenses you use. I changed lenses 5 times and I got sand on my lens for 2 of those blocks and didn’t notice…I had to throw away / crop down some great pics, ouch. Also, some pics come and go fast. Have fun and...

This place does not even deserve one star. Worst client service I've ever seen. The staff just couldn't care. We've been told different lies by different staff members when trying to get info. Restaurant is ok. Expensive with way too little options, extreme lack of service and never enough stock. Worst part was trying to get out of the camp site. We woke up early and packed up the camp because we had many, many hours of driving ahead, only to find shut gates and one stubborn guard. He told us that he didn't have the keys- only until one of his buddies wanted to exit- suddenly he had a key. Nobody was willing to assist us, so we waited. Thereafter another guy came to tell us our permit expired, when it did not. They refused to open the gate unless we gave them the money so they will "pay it when the office opens up". We had no choice because the office did not open for another hour and we've been stuck at the gate for three hours. Ripped off knowingly but had no choice. These guys know how to scam. Be careful. Apart from that, the campsite was extremely noisy at night. Some machines running in the background made it really difficult to sleep.

Rather stay at Sossus Oasis campsite just across the road and visit the park during the day. It's a beautiful park to see, but a complete rip off due to management running it...

It’s not worth the extra hour on either side. Stay somewhere else.

10 years ago I loved this camp. Preferential access to the park is the drawcard and a number of sites are beautiful under old acacias. Beer is cold.

That said, it’s not worth it, at all. Staff are rude and embarrassing to Namibia, with one or two exceptions. The bar operates a 50:30:20 basis - 50% of the time there’s no one there, 30% the staff completely ignore you, 20% you get lucky. When asking for firewood the shopkeeper with her Apple headphones in made me look around in the filthy back room while she genuinely proceeded to take a nap on her desk and I had to wait a couple minutes for her to wake up to pay. The toilet facilities are a health hazard (not cleaned at all in 3 days, overflowing with you know what). The braais/dustbins clearly weren’t looked at in weeks. Everything is broken.

Price is ridiculous for what you get. Won’t even start on NWR reservations team who cancelled my booking without explanation and I had to pay double.

Entrance to the park is no longer manned at all. Permit system isn’t tracked. People speed up and down the road to Deadvlei at 120kmph. Deadvlei itself will be reduced to rubble in 10-20 years under the current management system.

NWR even make Sanparks...