Deserts

The largest salt lake of the world keeps on amazing people and should be on the itinerary when visiting Bolivia or even South America. At an altitude of about 3600 m it is part of the Bolivian Altiplano. This enormous salt lake is dry most of the year but for a few months there is some water in the lake turning it into a huge mirror. When the lake is dry you can drive across admiring the vastness and because there is a the lack of depth it is popular to make fun photos with different objects. Other attractions are the small local salt production places at the edge of the lake where you can see the locals dry the salt and make salt bricks to use for constructing houses and hotels for tourists. Incahuasi island is another popular stop and pretty much in the middle of the salt lake where there is a trail that leads to the top of this cactus-filled island.

Just a short distance from San Pedro de Atacama is the Vale de la Luna. Its name comes from the moon-like landscape of this part of the Atacama desert. In the valley of the moon are narrow canyons to explore and amazing rock formations in all kind of shapes. One of such valleys is the canyon de sal where, when there aren’t any people around, it is extremely quiet except for the crackling sounds of the salt deposits in the rocks. One of the prettiest rock formations is called the amphitheatre, which looks like the name it has been given and is especially pretty with the Licancabur volcano in the background.
When visiting just before sunset, the colours of the desert are even more striking. Just try to avoid going to the same spot as hundreds of other visitors to se the sun set.

Allegedly the hottest place on Earth with a record temperature of 70.7 Celsius (159.3 Fahrenheit) and daytime temperatures reaching well into the 60s, the Dasht-e Lut Desert north of Kerman is beautifully strange (and hot) experience. The desert's landscape is a sight in itself, consisting of cracked salt flats with ridges and furrows rising up to 75 meters into the air, assembly weirdly oversized sandcastles. To experience the heath, it is possible to arrange trips from Kerman, which can include sleepovers under the open sky, including cooling dips in oasis' springs, and visits to century old caravansaries.
Bring your thermometer!

As Kuwait is a desert country, it would be natural to take a trip into it. If you're not venturing further out than where there is a road, you will be met with power lines, Bedouin camps, and trash. For a real desert trip, you need a 4WD and someone who knows how to navigates the rolling sand dunes. In winter the desert is a favoured place to go camping, even for city folks, where tent camps can be as cramped as Kuwait City.

Forget Morocco and Egypt. If you really want to follow in the footsteps of the ancient caravans, Mauritania is the place to do it. Camels were essentially pack-animals, and the caravan traders would not ride, but walk alongside their camels. So strap your bags to a few camels and follow your nomad guide into the desert. These treks are easy to arrange in both Atar and Chinguetti, but most will set out from the latter. From short sunset walks and overnight stays in the sand to multi-day treks – Ouadane and Terjit each take five to seven days from Chinguetti and are the most popular destinations. For the beyond hardcore, Tichit is a mere three weeks walk away. Should all the walking worry you, it is possible to bring an extra camel to carry anyone who tires. If you prefer your camel with leather seats and A/C is it also possible to arrange 4x4 trips around the region in Atar. These tend to be shorter and more expensive, but cover more ground – and the desert here offers everything from oases over cave drawings to meteorite crash sites.

In the middle of the Gobi desert, where dust and stones rule, the flat plateau breaks off to a lower level. During sunrise and sunset the exposed cliffs give off an orange hue which gives the place its name. It was here in the 1920's that the American archaeologist Roy Chapman Andrews made the amazing discovery that dinosaurs were egg laying - and made some wrong assumptions that the newly found dinosaur specimen, the velociraptor, was an egg thief. You can still to this day walk around and find dinosaur bones and egg shells at the bottom of the cliffs. Close by (in Gobi terms) grow the rare Saxual trees. These wooden creatures are so dense that they cannot float in water... well, if there was any.

These sand dunes are some of the very little sand there actually is in this giant desert, but they are still pretty big. More than a hundred kilometres long, twelve kilometres wide, and several hundred metres high, they are sometimes called the the singing sand due to the whistling sound the blowing sand makes. This can turn into a roaring that breaks the silence of the desert, when the tall dunes avalanche.

The sand dunes of Erg Chebbi are the tallest and most well-known in Morocco. They span an area 22 km long and 5 km wide, and rise up to 150 m. However, they are not the biggest by area, for that title goes to the only other sand dunes in Morocco, Erg Chigaga near M'hamid, which cover a bigger area, but only rise to 50 m.
Erg Chebbi (and for that matter Erg Chigaga too) is the iconic picture of the Sahara, as a stunning sea of orange sand dunes. However, technically none of them are in the Sahara.
The small town Merzouga is located literally at the foot of the dunes of Erg Chebbi and is the action center for any sand activity you can think of. Though there are auberge in town, many choose to stay under the stars in a desert camp.

The oasis town of M'hamid is literally at the end of the road. However, you can continue along sandy tracks into the Sahara, which will pass the famous sand dunes of Erg Chigaga, and eventually lead to Foum Zguid. The town itself has plenty of tourist camps, touts and desert adventures on offer.

The Namib Desert is a place not just of magnificent vistas, but also of plenty of fun in the sand. Two of the most popular activities are quad biking and dune boarding. The latter provides the greater adrenaline rush and consists of throwing oneself off the top of tall desert dunes on a flimsy piece of wood or plastic at speeds up to 80km/h. Particularly friendly guides may offer a lift back up the dune - otherwise it is a long, hard walk. Quad bikes follow set circuits, and neither activity is permitted outside of specifically denoted areas, so the effect on the environment is minimal. For those wishing something a bit different, why not give sand skiing a go?