The Adventures of Kerri & Matt

This is a horned adder.

That’s his name because he has little horn.

He leaves these tracks in the sand.

And then buries himself near a plant with just his head sticking out.

So that his prey can’t see him.

When it prey gets close he will wiggle the tip of his tail so that it thinks it is a bug and gets really close.

Then he will strike.

Swakopmund is an old German city in the little strip between the sand dunes and the ocean.

It is a very tiny strip.

There are many cool insects in the desert. Sometimes they are hard to find though because they don’t come out much.

These are the most common type of beetle.

They make these tracks.

Something else makes these tracks.

If you sift through the sand you can find even more things.

Here’s another toki toki beetle. There are hundreds of different species of these insects.

They tend to run along the surface but can burrow too.

Here’s another different toki toki.

This bird isn’t creepy or crawly, but he doesn’t fit anywhere else so he’s going here. He was cute and hung out with us for a bit while we looked for the creepy crawlies.

Lots of things grow in the desert, like this bush.

And this bush.

The leaves hold a lot of water.

These ones were actually flowering.

They survive because from the morning dew that collects.

Here you can see all the water, but don’t drink it because it is still quite salty.

Their seeds are cool and keep open to get blown around, however, once they are exposed to water they close up and start collecting sand to start growing.

 

 

They do pretty well.

Those aren’t the only plants. Here’s another that has to continually outgrow the sand otherwise it will gets buried and dies.

It is actually a type of squash and here’s the fruit.

It’s a desert pumpkin and when small still very spiky.