Out & About August 2017

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

L ocated in south west Africa, with a 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 population of 2.3 million and larger than Britain and France combined, Namibia exudes a barren sense of wilderness.

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

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