Anyone who tells you that the Kalahari is just red sand and lions either hasn’t visited or simply wasn’t concentrating. In fact, it’s full of fascinating small creatures like whistling rats and barking geckos. After good rain in summer the dunes are dressed in a jacket of green grass and a throng of colourful flowers will just about slap you in the face. This, then, is the Kalahari in bloom.
By Roxanne Reid
Anyone who tells you that the Kalahari is just red sand and lions either hasn’t visited or simply wasn’t concentrating. In fact, it’s full of fascinating small creatures like whistling rats and barking geckos. After good rain in summer the dunes are dressed in a jacket of green grass and a throng of colourful flowers will just about slap you in the face. This, then, is the Kalahari in bloom.
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By Roxanne Reid The landscape around the little town of Aus in southern Namibia was hot, parched and dusty. Klein Aus Vista’s Desert Horse Campsite, on the fringe of the Namib Desert and the Gondwana Sperrgebiet Rand Park, was our stopover for a couple of nights. We were there to see Namibia’s wild horses, but what we found at sunset were rocky koppies washed in ginger light. By Roxanne Reid He was a whirlwind of energy, sand flying as he dug in search of creatures that had left tiny hints of their presence, wiggling his bare feet into the sand where it was cooler than the hot surface. This was Tommy Collard leading us into the dunes of the Dorob National Park outside Swakopmund, Namibia, proving that the dunes are more alive than you think. By Roxanne Reid A one-legged flying doctor. A madman who lugs a car over the mountain to a place without roads. These are the kind of stories you’ll find among the silence and solitude at Gamkaskloof near Prince Albert in the Karoo, otherwise known as The Hell. |
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AboutI'm an independent travel writer and book editor with a passion for Africa - anything from African travel, people, safari and wildlife to adventure, heritage, road-tripping and slow travel. Categories
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