Deserts

To most people the word ‘desert’ conjures up images of endless sand, heat and mirages!  This is true with tropical deserts but there are alpine and high altitude deserts too, with a very different terrain and they all support resilient life forms – plants and animals that have adapted over the millennia to tough out these harsh environments.

The Sahara Desert in Africa is the world’s largest at around 3,500,000 and covers most of the north of the continent. There are a few underground rivers flowing from the Atlas Mountains which help irrigate isolated oasis areas but other than that the Sahara has pretty much no rainfall.  Travel to Africa to meet people such as the Tuareg who live, relying on their camels in desert environments such as in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Ethiopia and Northern Kenya.  Rock paintings have been found showing grazing animals such as antelope and giraffe, suggesting that at some stage there was enough vegetation to support them. Some desert animals here today include the Fennec Fox, Jerboa, Caracal and some reptiles.

Also is Africa is the Kalahari desert, home to the san bushmen. This desert covers much of Botswana through to the south west of South Africa and all of western Namibia. The coastline (including the Skeleton coast) is called the Namib Desert.  Here are ‘desert elephants’ who have adapted to survival in these amazingly harsh conditions. To the north of Namibia, meet the people in conservancies who are working together with conservation bodies to preserve their way of life and that of the wildlife around them.

In Asia, the Gobi Desert covers a high plateau area in the centre of the continent, including parts of north and north west China and southern Mongolia.  The desert basins here are bordered by the grasslands and steppes of Mongolia to the north, the Tibetan Plateau to southwest and by the North China Plain to the southeast.  It plays an important part of history as this was the centre of the great Mongol Empire and the location of important cities on the Silk Road trading route.  Travel here to meet the horsemen of the desert, which for much of the year is freezing cold and experience life in the high plateau lands of central Asia.

In South America you will find the driest desert in the world, The Atacama. Situated in Northern Chile it consists mostly of salt basins and sand with lava flows towards the Andes.

Take a look through this website for ideas to explore the desert regions of the Earth.  Whether you want to stay with the Tuaregs of the Sahara, trek in the remote Gobi Desert, sleep under the stars on a bedroll in the Kalahari or learn survival skills in the Australian outback, give me a call to arrange your desert adventure …… Where in the world would you rather be?