In a statement on Saturday, Namibia Wildlife Resorts said lodge staff were cleaning up the mud and full operations should resume early this week unless further heavy rains fell.

"Some of the campsites have already been cleared and visitors are welcome.

Fuel is also again freely available at the camping site, and the fuel station at Sesreim and Sossusvlei was inspected by technicians from the oil company who have determined that the fuel has not been contaminated by the ingress of water," said NWR spokesman Peter Mietzner.

But Mietzner cautioned guests to drive carefully, as the main road to Sossusvlei was damaged by the rain.

Four-wheel-drive vehicles should have no trouble, but people with small cars might find it impassable.

Major clean-up operations were launched at the lodge and camp on Thursday after flash floods swept through offices and guest rooms the previous night.

On Wednesday, 85 millimetres of rain fell in less than one hour in the Sesriem Canyon area, causing torrents of water to flood the valley below the Naukluft Mountains.

Tourists at the Sossusvlei Lodge and at the Government-owned Sesriem Rest Camp had to be ushered to safety as the rain sent mud, silt and water flooding through their rooms.

Kurt Schlenther, the General Manager of Sossusvlei Lodge, described the flooding as devastating but said operations would return to normal by Friday.

"It is amazing how the landscape changed in just 45 minutes because of rain.

We are, of course, grateful for the rain.

This is water brought to us by God," Schlenther said.

Sebulon Chicalu, the Acting General Manager of Operations at NWR, earlier confirmed to Nampa that the flood had affected about 80 per cent of their operations at the Rest Camp.

Both the Sesriem Rest Camp and the Sossusvlei Lodge are near the Sesriem Canyon, about 170 km northwest of the town of Maltahoehe on the fringe of the Namib Desert.

- Nampa

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