Three Deserts

At first glance this must seem one of the most Godforsaken places on our planet. It's near Hentie's Bay in Namibia, and it's one of those rare interfaces of a searingly hot land desert with a marine desert, beneath a desert sky.

By 'desert' here I mean a deserted place, a place where there are no, or very, very few humans. However, if one were to include all living creatures, one of the three, the South Atlantic Ocean, is....

....far from deserted, for there is an upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich waters from the Benguela current which support a wealth of life, including the seals which come ashore to breed along its beaches.

A few creatures are at home in this land desert, including the tok-tokkie beetle and the Namib sand-diver lizard (above), the latter surviving the heat by burrowing under the sand to cooler depths or, if it has to stand on hot sand, alternating feet, holding two up to cool in the air.

Humans have few reasons to venture into this barren wasteland but the quest for minerals has been one, the coast becoming famous for its diamonds, and another is to exploit.... 

....the abundant marine life found in its rich Atlantic waters.

There is another sort of human which visits - the modern tourist. We passed through on our way from Etendeka to Swakopmund in 2009, and stopped to look in awe at such an apparently lifeless but strangely beautiful place.