Dunes and Vleis

Everybody knows what a dune is.











But what is a vlei? Vlei is Afrikaans for a shallow minor lake, mostly of a seasonal or intermittent nature. They can be freshwater, saltwater or brackish. Often they remain a viable body of water like the vleis we saw in Sedgefield on the Garden Route in South Africa. But over time a vlei may degrade into a salt pan or a clay pan such as the vleis of the Namib  Desert around Sesriem, Deadvlei, Sossusvlei and Narravlei.

With little precipitation and temperatures like this in the early morning hours and at the onset of Spring, it is no wonder the vleis around Sossus dried up.