Fodor's Expert Review Big Daddy Dune

If you're in good shape, you can hike to the top of Big Daddy, the highest sand dune in the world at around 360 meters (1,181 feet). But it's tough going: more than an hour of very hot trudging and wading through ankle- and sometimes knee-deep sand to climb along the ridge that overlooks the famous Dead Vlei (where ghostly skeletons of ancient camel thorn trees jut up from a flat, sandy, dried-up lake). If you don't feel up to any physical exertion at all, then sit in the shade of camel thorn trees at the bottom of the dunes and watch the birdlife, or focus your binoculars on the distant climbers.