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L
ocated in south west Africa, with a
population of 2.3 million and larger than
Britain and France combined, Namibia
exudes a barren sense of wilderness.
The epitome of this aridity, the coastal Namib
Desert occupies the country’s entire western
margin, some 1,000 miles long with varying
widths of up to 125 miles.
But in more ways than one, this harsh
environment is a rich storyboard of evolution
and with only a slight scratching of the surface,
a wealth of life is discovered.
Big Daddy, the goliath sand dune, which I had
just summited, as well as others of similar
standing, are located in the central west portion
of the Namib in an area known as Sossusvlei.
Translated in English to ‘dead-end marsh’,
Sossusvlei is one of four large clay pans that
form the end point of the ephemeral Tsauchab
River.
The flat, deathlywhite of the pans surrounded
by towering red sand dunes offer some of the
most striking natural landscapes to be found
anywhere in Africa.
Another must see, literally ‘over the dune’ from
Sossusvlei, is a parched pan named Deadvlei.
Here a small dead forest of camel-thorn trees
has been fossilised for some 900 years, relics
of a time before the sand sea halted seasonal
floods.
Venturing into the rockier northern Namib
via some rusty shipwrecks and thousands of
sea shells on the Skeleton Coast, I arrived at
Desert Rhino Camp to see for myself just how
large mammals such as the black rhino can
survive in the desert.
Run in conjunction with the local communities
and Save The Rhino Trust (SRT), this long-
standing, highly successful operation has
managed to sustain the largest, free-roaming
population of these critically endangered
animals on earth.
Another early morning saw me follow the SRT
Trackers as they scouted dry riverbeds with
their binoculars.
We soon saw a mother and her calf making
their way down to one of the few natural
springs in the area, stopping off to browse at
various dead-looking shrubs.
While these individuals didn’t look too different
from black rhino I had seen elsewhere in
Africa, they are internationally recognised as
a separate ‘desert’ species; feeding and
moving mostly at night and resting in shade
during the day.
Unlike other rhino, they have a much greater
utilisation of available food, browsing 74 of the
103 plant species that occur in their range, and
moving much greater distances for both food
and water, some having territories of more than
500 square miles.
Perhaps the highlight of my trip was navigating
further north through the Skeleton Coast
Deser t Delight
JAKE COOK goes on an African adventure across Namibia,
observing first-hand conservation work and experiencing the
true wilderness of the Namib desert