How to fall in love with the desert. 4 amazing deserts just waiting for you
For most people, the word desert makes you conjure up yellow. You will likely have an image of huge expanses of yellow, dry sand. A dead mass of nothingness just being eaten away by sand. If you think of life it will probably be very limited or no green vegetation, no flowers, and little too limited animals, a scorpion here and there, maybe a snake, but nothing more. These animals will only be sneaking out in the middle of the night when the temperature is cooled down to avoid the blistering daytime heat. The choices of desert you will see below, however, will give you so much more than just sand and death.
4. Kalahari Desert, South Africa.
4. Kalahari Desert, South Africa.
When you visit South Africa there are millions of things to see and explore. One of my favorite things to do and not the first thing people think of when mentioning South Africa is visiting the Kalahari Desert. Many do not even know what it is or where it is located, but wow, is it worth a trip. The Kalahari Desert is 360,000 square miles of utterly beautiful nature stretching across not only South Africa but also Botswana and Namibia. It is a window into a world so different from mine and everything I expected a desert to be.
If you expect to see only the vast expanses of yellow sand as far as your eye can see, you might not get what you are expecting, however, you will not be disappointed.
You can see sand. But you can see so much more than the dry thirstland, where no life can thrive. Life does thrive here. More than you might think.
Beauty means something else out here. It is as simple as that. Beauty is a raw, unfiltered, survival of the fittest and toughest competition which somehow turns out to be absolutely stunning. I never knew red and yellow could form so many different nuances and shades. I was breath taken by day and even more by night when the stars came out and the temperature came down. Suddenly I could be shaking from chill while staring up at that sky.
Looking at the Milky Way from the Kalahari Desert is the most extraordinary and beautiful thing to cast your eye on. When you discover the stars from the middle of nowhere in the desert while lying on your bag on a blanket you understand how small you really are. And you can’t help but wonder if there is anything out there, somewhere, as beautiful and wonderful at the planet and nature all around us. I’m not kidding I “Men in blacked” the shit out of my experience.
3. The Judaea Desert, Israel
Driving through the Judaea desert towards the Dead Sea we kept seeing these small signs on the side of the road telling us exactly how low we were, and even inside the car, you can feel it getting hotter and hotter. Once you go past the 270 m sign and you just keep driving deeper into the interior it begins to feel surreal… but on we drove. It flattens out once you pass through the gorges. The Dead Sea itself is located deeper than 370 meters below surface (377m).
Sweat is rolling down my skin. It is so hot. The desert seems even more unmerciful than I thought possible. I am sweating from places I didn't even know could sweat.
It is beautiful here. The roughness and scorching heat kind of blows you away in a very unique way. It is an experience that cannot be explained but needs to be experienced for yourself.
The Judaea desert is memorable for its spectacular landscape and scenic gorges. Here you can’t be anything but marveled at nature's ability to create and shape the landscape.
A fun fact! The Dead Sea Scrolls, which contains some of the oldest copies discovered in the Hebrew Bible, were actually found at this location between 1947 and 1956. This is considered the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century. Some of them have been dated back to 200 b.c. They have been found in various different caves in the area and in different conditions and shapes. The scrolls contained stories that were lost or forgotten about Biblical people from the old testament such as Abraham and Noah.
Stop by the Masada, located here, in the middle of it all, on an isolated clifftop in the heart of the desert, overlooking the Dead Sea and the untamed landscape of the Judaea Desert. The Masada is an ancient mountain fortress ruin and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Besides excavations, it will give you a splendid view of the Judaea Desert.
2. - Kalbarri National Park, Western Australia
Spectacular, spectacular… Travel into the wild, wild west of Australia. The Kalbarri National Park is filled with opportunities and is one of the most exciting and beautiful National Park in Australia.
It is known for its breathtaking landscape and scenic gorges shaped with red and white striped sandstone and its flora diversity. Just after the wet season you can encounter and admire the bloom of more than 800 species of wildflowers located all over the park.
The Kalbarri National Park surrounds the lower reaches of the spectacular Murchison River, which has, over millions of years, cut magnificent gorges in the sandstone cliff. Marvel at nature's ability to create and shape the landscape.
There are excellent lookouts all over the park but Nature's Window is probably Kalbarri's’ most famous attraction. It is an opening in the layered sandstone that frames a view of the river and the beautiful red gorges surrounding it. Depending on your preferred season you can see a more or less filled river and a more or less green/red landscape. It is just a short walk from the car park. Here you can consider how Australia may have looked like a lifetime ago as you glance into the vast eternity.
For a short walk, you can take the Z-Bend to the most dramatic and dazzling scenery. Here you can see the river cut through the stunning red landscape and watch life everywhere. You can hear the birds in the air and where ever there is a bit of shade you can meet the animals who live in this park. Hawk’s Head and Ross Graham Lookout are two other lookouts that offer easy access and minimal walking. There is something for every level here from one-day excursions to four or five days extended hikes, just remember to register at the park office.
1. The Stuart Ranges, Coober Pedy, South Australia
Stunning at sunrise, sunset or during the day, the desert in Australia’s outback has a magical touch to it. At first sight, it looks like a dead, sunburned land with no life as far as the eye can see. At sunset, the deep red, brown, orange, yellow and white colors blend together to create true beauty. For thousands of years, Aboriginal nomads traveled through this area and lived off the land gathered and hunted what they could, and moved along as to not to damage the earth. Those times have long gone by.
Did you ever watch Star Wars and wondered what it would be like growing up within Luke Skywalkers’ family? Living in a desert on a planet far, far away from civilization, where you have to live underground?
I imagine it would feel a little like living in Coober Pedy. Coober Pedy is situated upon the edge of the erosional scarp of the Stuart Ranges, on beds of sand and siltstone topped with a stony, treeless desert. Very little plant life exists in town due to the region's low rainfall, a high cost of water, the sandstone and lack of topsoil. Here, many of the locals live in homes carved deep underground to escape the scorching heat of the desert summers. These below-ground residences are called “dugouts” and can be seen all over the town. Around half the city is still underground even though more and more people choose to build ‘normal’ houses. Dugouts have managed to use the earth to for cooling during the hot days and for insolation during the cold desert nights.
Exploring the alien landscape was so spectacular and different to me, and I found its rugged, hard beauty mesmerizing. I spent hours sitting on the top of one of these dirt-hills and just staring into the vast never-ending desert, feeling small, but also feeling like part of something bigger. And at night… man those stars shine bright and beautiful like they want to show off for the desert folk.
Coober Pedy is located in the northern part of South Australia. If you just follow the Stuart Highway you can’t miss it. And I really mean you can’t miss it.
Stop by the Breakaways. Looking out over its arid scenery it is hard to believe that over 70 million years ago, a vast inland sea covered the area. It truly shows us that life can successfully adapt when challenged. Here, in one of the world’s harshest environments, life endures.
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