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Both photos were taken about twenty minutes after we had flown over the wreck of the Eduard Bohlen.
Less than half an hour later we would be back in Swakopmund, after our late afternoon 600 k flight over the Namib Desert’s “sand sea”.
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#41 in this series showed a sand dune “eating” forest in Australia’s southwestern “corner”, a few kilometres from the Indian Ocean,.
This chapter sees a shipwreck being devoured by the Namib Desert, adjacent to the Atlantic coast of Southern Africa.
Above and below, you are looking at what remains of the Eduard Bohlen.
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Oryx gazella – the gemsbok, aka “African oryx”/ “South African oryx” – is the largest oryx species.
Namibia’s emblematic mammal is prodigiously well-adapted to a very demanding environment.
Gemsbok would probably handsomely defeat the “ship of the desert” in any global championship for “most efficient/ hardiest mammal in sandy places where rain hardly ever falls, and where no “permanent” rivers flow”.
The Namib Desert’s “sand sea” – most especially, around Sossusvlei – has some of “our” planet’s most astonishing landscapes.
More than a few of its dunes dwarf even the largest local inhabitants!
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The multi-hued appearance of these dunes – just a few kilometres inland from the Atlantic Ocean – shows that their composition is diverse, not overwhelmingly silica-dominant.
Silica does not rust; iron does.
Rust is clearly evident in some of the pictured sands, albeit less spectacularly so than in much of Australia’s “Red Centre”…and in the Namib too, further inland.
Most of the sands in the Namib Desert’s dunes are not of “local” origin.
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The Namib’s plants are as astonishing as its animals.
We were just a few kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean, near Swakopmund, when I took this post’s photos, one November mid-afternoon.
Swakopmund’s “round figure” rainfall average for the month of November: 1 mm.
November is “infinitely” wetter than October!
Average October rainfall in Swakopmund: 0 mm.
Average total for the calendar year’s entire final quarter: 2 mm.
Q: how on earth can a very shallow-rooted, Namib-endemic shrub – one that often grows on the upper part of a dune – manage to survive? (and be a useful “emergency water source” for desert animals – parched humans included)
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Meroles anchietae – the shovel-snouted lizard – is endemic to the Namib Desert’s dunes.
Its signature behaviours – “dancing” atop the sand’s surface on a hot day, and diving into the cooler sand, below – are adaptations developed in order to survive an imminent, lethal threat.
As illustrated in #27 of this series, we were lucky enough to witness its astonishingly speedy sand-diving – a feat in which the key factor is its “shovel”.
Just inland from Swakopmund, and only a few kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean, the afternoon of 19 November 2022 was cool.
Accordingly, whilst our hero did deploy his “shovel” snout in order to escape predators/us, he did not need to dance!
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Palmatogecko rangei (aka Pachydactylus rangei) is petite – less than 7cm long.
Endemic to the Namib desert, this dune-dwelling hunter of small invertebrates is commonly known as the “Namib sand gecko”, or the (Namib) “web-footed gecko”
Its skin is almost translucent, but exquisitely coloured.
Relative to its body, its feet are very big; its eyes are HUGE.
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This post stars the very same species – and, I think, the same individual – as did the featured image in this series’ immediately-preceding chapter.
I took this post’s photo at 3.56 pm on 19 November 2022.
Q: why was this usually-stealthy snake out in the open, on a relatively rare patch of rockier/more gravelly ground?
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Just visible in the featured image: a “lizard specialist” predator, awaiting an ambush opportunity.
Immediately below: the “footprints” this predator leaves behind, when ascending the face of a dune:
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Circa 75,000 members of our own species live in Swakopmund, and a great many more visit, as tourists.
Below, you are looking at its beachfront, as viewed from a hotel window at 7. 20 am on 20 November 2022.
Namibia’s third largest city – and its one “seaside resort” – is sandwiched between the chilly, easternmost waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the westernmost dunes of the Namib Desert’s “sand sea”, whence I took the featured image at 5. 11 pm on the previous day.
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