Shiney's Deserts

Link to other threads on 'Shiney's Travels'
http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/shineys-travels.61299/

What prompted me to start this topic is that this month is the 45th anniversary of me, with some friends, driving across the Namib and Kalahari deserts in an old Jaguar XK120.

Most people think of a desert as just being something with sand but it doesn't have to be just that. Dictionary definitions vary but in general they agree that it is normally a desolate or uninhabited area. This includes places such as Antarctica and desert islands.

I don't have any photos of the Namib or Kalahari deserts as I didn't have a camera in those days. The following pictures are just since I bought my pocket digital camera.

These first few are from Egypt and some of them you may have seen on my Egypt thread.


A lovely sand dune coming down to the Nile



A typical desert scene with a camel on the horizon (if you can see it)



And some closer



A policeman on patrol



Ballooning over a desert village on the way to the Valley of The Kings



In the Valley of The Kings



And here's a desert island, just for a contrast

 

Hi Shiney cracking Photos I never got to Egypt
Thanks for sharing them with us.

 

These two photos don't look particularly like desert but they are in the desert region in the southern part of Madagascar.


Children walking down the main road to school.



Typical village hut with garden!



These next photos qualify as desolate and uninhabited.

The caldera (large crater) of a volcano.



It was interesting walking across it past the steaming cracks in the ground.






Looking down on the crater and a rainbow inside it.


[ 06. February 2008, 11:29 PM: Message edited by: shiney ]

 

These next four also qualify as desolate and uninhabited (by humans).

It is alongside the Straits of Magellan in Patagonia.




It is inhabited by penguins who seem quite happy there.



The land is rather barren and very little can grow there. It is too windy even for hardy trees and shrubs.



It was their summer when I was there and just above freezing. The wind chill factor of the 50 m.p.h. wind was quite noticeable. I don't normally wear these clothes in the summer!

 

Some of the newer GC members asked where my Egypt photos were so I have pulled them to the top. They are under 'Non-Gardening Discussion'.

Thanks for asking

A lot more desert photos to come.

 

Thanks for all your nice comments. I hope you'll enjoy the others when I put them up.

 

The Pan American Highway runs from the southern tip of South America (Patagonia) all the way to Canada. Some of it is no more than a track and at the lower end can disappear under water.

This is not a very good photo taken about 700-800 miles north of the last ones (in Chile) and on the Pan-Am Highway. I have put it up just to show another unusual sight. I took it from inside our vehicle because it was peeing down outside. The locals call it the 'Ghost Swamp' and say that it is haunted. Apparently the 'experts' can't work out why the trees died.




Then about 1,500 miles further north the Atacama desert starts. This is the dryest desert in the world and varies enormously throughout its length.

About 350 miles north, into the desert is the lovely small town of Iquique (more of which will be seen when I eventually put up my Chile photos) and some distance inland from there is the ghost town of Humberstone.
All this part of the desert is sandy and rocky and a drab colour.







Humberstone and surrounding area was the world's biggest saltpetre mining area. From the late 1800's until 1930 they helped make Chile a very rich country by exporting nitrates for fertiliser all over the world. Then artificial fertilisers were made and ruined the industry. Humberstone finally closed down in 1961 and has since been made a World Heritage site.

The buildings are not affected much by the climate because it doesn't rain but they are affected by earthquakes.


Not quite a 'brick' outhouse!



Abandoned equipment



A few miles down the road was Santa Laura where they processed the nitrates.

 

A further 200 miles drive on the Pan Am through the Atacama brings you to Arica (City of Eternal Spring). From our point of view the friendly name is stretching it a bit as the temperature tends to be between 25C and 30C most of the year. A bit more than what we would call Spring and the sun gets very hot.


Although it doesn't rain there is plenty of water from the river that comes down from the Andes. People have been living here for 8,000 years but not in these houses




It is quite a sophisticated area and they have a golf course.




The fairways are marked out with white paint.






It is quite easy to get lost in the desert.


Where are we?



We don't know!!!!

 

Arica is on the border between Chile and Peru. It used to belong to Peru but, after the War of the Pacific, Chile now owns it. A little way outside Arica there are a lot of geoglyphs in the desert. These are signs either scr*ped into the hillside or made from laying rocks together. some were religious and some were direction signs and could be hundreds of feet long.




About 200 miles further north it is still mountains and desert but Peru don't like admitting they have desert so don't give it a name

Along the coast at the southern part of Peru they have the coastal mountains that, in my opinion, are still part of the desert.











The grey/white colour on the mountains is not snow but is volcanic ash.