The Deserts of Africa - Unimaginable
Beauty by James Weis
Africa - the second largest
continent in the world is also home to the largest desert in the world
-- the Sahara. In fact there are three deserts on the continent--The Sahara,
the Namib and the Kalahari. Together these three amazingly vast and diverse
land masses cover a large portion of Africa. Beautiful, yet treacherous,
these areas of the continent provide a rich geological and cultural history
that dates back millions of years.
 The
Sahara Desert - As inconceivable as it seems, this desert is ever changing,
shrinking and growing in size. Satellite photos studied from the early
1980s show that the Sahara's southern edge is expanding into the Sahel,
a dry band that separates the desert from the Savanna. But the mid-1980s
saw this area grow green and wet again. A common trade route for many centuries,
caravans traveled through the Sahara spending days and weeks traversing
the immense landscape. Several desert oases here made trade possible between
the ports of North African and the southern Savannah markets.
There are around 4 million
people or so that dwell in the Sahara, mostly in Mauritania, Western Sahara,
Algeria, Libya and Egypt. Additionally there is
a fascinating and impressive array of animal life, include gerbil, jerboa,
cape hare, desert hedgehog, barbary sheep, oryx, gazelle, deer, wild ass,
baboon, hyena, jackal, sand fox, weasel and mongoose. The bird life includes
more than 300 species. This vast life and diverse culture comes all in
one desert.
The Namib Desert -
The sand dunes of the Namib Desert are the highest dunes on Earth. While
the Sahara is the largest desert in the world, the Namib is considered
the oldest desert, having endured arid or semi-arid conditions for at least
80 million years. In the Nama language, Namib means "vast", and this is
no exaggeration. At 50,000 kilometers, the Namib-Naukluft Park is the largest
conservation area in Namibia and one of the largest
in the world. Wind blows the thirsty Namib Desert sand into sharp ridges.
Amazingly there are animals, insects and plants that reside in this beautiful,
yet mostly inhospitable region of the world. One of its most unusual inhabitants,
the Welwitschia, is a shrub-like plant that grows just two long, strap-shaped
leaves continuously throughout its lifetime. It is believed that they are
very long-lived, possibly living 1000 years or more. Some individuals may
be more than 2000 years old.
The Kalahari Desert -
A geological wonder, the Kalahari Desert is part of the huge sand basin
that reaches from the Orange River up to Angola,
in the west to Namibia and in the east to Zimbabwe. The sand masses of
wind-shaped sand that are so common in the Kalahari landscape were created
by the erosion of soft stone formations. Thanks to vegetation in the area,
the dunes were stabilized 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. Strangely enough,
the grasses, thorny shrubs and Acacia trees can survive long drought periods
of more than 10 months a year. Some scientists don't consider the Kalahari
a true desert because some parts of the Kalahari receive more than 10 inches
of rain in a year. Animals that live in the region include brown hyena,
lion, meerkat, several species of antelope, and many types of birds and
reptiles.
Eyes on Africa boasts an
extremely knowledgeable team of staff members, who are passionate about
every aspect of travel to Southern Africa, including its wildlife and safari
destinations. Contact them for your next desert safari adventure.
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