Deserts

A desert, I used to tell my geography students, is a place which is deserted of humans, so the Earth's greatest desert is its five oceans, taken together, with the Antarctic and Sahara left far behind. Yet, when we think of deserts, what comes to mind is extreme heat and dryness and sand dunes....

....yet most of the hot desert areas I have seen - mainly in North Africa and Namibia - are almost sand-less rock deserts like the one above - and they're far fiercer, far more awe-inspiring, far more frightening than their sandy cousins.

In a sand desert, the 'erg' of the Sahara, there are lots of sand grains being blown around and rippled and sculpted into often magnificent dunes. In a rock desert, the Saharan 'reg', it's as if a giant has gone berserk, picking up great lumps of rock and throwing them around and, in so doing....

....carving the landscape into strange shapes which often look as if they've been sandpapered.

My most vivid experience of being close and intimate with a desert comes from the long hitch-hike I did from Algeria along the north coast of Africa to Egypt and then up the Nile to Luxor, and then back again. There were times when my companion and I were dumped at the roadside in the middle of the desert, sometimes to sit for many hours waiting for the next lift to come along. From this, I learned to love the desert, to be very afraid of it, and very respectful, but I was totally enamoured.

I doubt whether I'll ever experience a place like this again but I'm so, so glad I have.

All pictures in Namibia.