Sossusvlei, Deadvlei, and Sesriem Canyon are all products of the same river. The Tsauchab rises in the Naukluft Mountains, drains westward across the gravel plains, and in its journey toward the Atlantic has carved a canyon, fed ancient lakes, killed the trees whose skeletons now make Deadvlei famous, and, in rare extraordinary years, filled the Sossusvlei pan with water.
The river rarely reaches the pan. Most years it loses itself in the sand 30 to 50 kilometres short of its destination, absorbed by the desert before it can complete its course. But the white clay of the vleis, the canyon it cut, and the camel thorn skeletons of Deadvlei are all evidence of a river that, over geological time, has been a significant force in shaping this landscape.
The Canyon
Sesriem Canyon is the most dramatic evidence of the Tsauchab’s power. The 1km gorge was cut over millions of years by the river in flood, carrying enough abrasive sediment to carve through 40 million years of sedimentary rock. The layered walls of the canyon represent the geological history of the broader Namib: gravel beds, sandstone, and silt layers that record the fluctuating conditions of an ancient landscape.
The permanent pool at the canyon’s deepest section is water that seeps from the surrounding rock and is replenished by the river when it flows. It has never dried completely within recorded history.
Deadvlei
The camel thorn trees of Deadvlei grew when the Tsauchab reliably reached this pan. Then the river changed course slightly, diverted by dune migration, and the flow that had sustained the trees ceased. Without water, the trees died. Without decomposition (the aridity prevents it), the trunks and branches have stood for an estimated 900 years in a landscape that has changed from a water-fed pan to the driest place in one of the world’s driest deserts.
Flood Years
In years of extraordinary rainfall across the Naukluft catchment, the Tsauchab carries enough water to reach Sossusvlei pan. The pan fills. Flamingo arrive. The dead tree skeletons of Deadvlei are reflected in a temporary lake. These events are rare (approximately once every five to ten years, depending on rainfall), unpredictable, and one of the most extraordinary natural events in southern Africa. Visitors who happen to be at Sossusvlei during or immediately after a flood year experience something that most people never see.
The Gravel Plains
Between the Naukluft Mountains and Sesriem, the Tsauchab’s course is visible as a broad, pale gravel wash across the surrounding plains. This is the river’s flood plain: the area that the river covers when it flows strongly. The vegetation on the floodplain banks is slightly denser than the surrounding desert, fed by subsurface moisture that persists between flood events.
The gravel plains on either side of the C19 between Solitaire and Sesriem are the Tsauchab’s broader watershed. The oryx and springbok you see from the road are using these plains for the same reason the camel thorn trees once used Deadvlei: the Tsauchab’s influence extends well beyond its visible channel.