The picture below is not that of a painting. It was taken inside the Namib-Naukluft Park in Namibia, in a strange and alien landscape called Dead Vlei. Although sounds similar to “dead valley”, Dead Vlei is not an actually valley. The term means “dead marsh” (from English dead, and Afrikaans vlei, a lake or marsh in a valley between the dunes).

Deadvlei is a white clay pan located near the more famous salt pan of Sossusvlei, scattered with hundreds of dead Acacia trees that once thrived when water from the Tsauchab River soaked this piece of land. Some 900 years ago the river diverted its course, leaving Dead Vlei literally high and dry. Dead Vlei has been claimed to be surrounded by the highest sand dunes in the world, the highest reaching 300-400 meters which rest on a sandstone terrace.

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 Abgestorbene Akazien im Dead vlei, Namibia

I have travelled through a few deserts in my limited travels.  And I have always experienced a feeling of space and openness in these dry and sunny landscapes.  Deserts are usually flat and therefore one can see for miles.  And there are not a lot of people to get in your way.  The flora is so distinct and odd that if you look closely at it the colours are striking.  The critters in the desert are not spotted easily, and this is good because many are poisonous and overall outright dastardly creatures.

When I travelled in the deserts of the southwest U.S. I scanned the ground like a city vagrant when I left the car.  Never know where a rattler or scorpion could be lurking.  But I was always amazed at the feeling I felt of freedom and space.  While passing through the Utah salt flats the level feature of the terrain was astounding.  It looked like a giant parking lot as far as the eye could see.  I guess that is why they race for the world land speed records there.

Many people find deserts to be desolate and bland.  But I think deserts are a great land feature that add tremendous diversity to the geography of the world.

Namibia

Painted Desert Utah

 Oasis in Libya

Mojave desert California

Namibian desert

Australia

White Sands New Mexico

Namibia

Nazca Desert Peru

Judaean Desert and the Dead Sea

U.S. and Mexico

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Aoga-shima island off the coast of Japan

Inishturkbeg Island off Ireland

Male, capital island city of the Maldives

Battleship Island, Japan. There was a coal mine under the island, the company built apartment buildings for the workers and their families. It was abandoned in the 1980’s.

Palau, South Pacific

Lejima Island, Japan

Sark Island, English Channel

Babel Island, off Tasmania

Thousand Island Lake, China

Small island off of Thunder Bay, Ontario

Whitsunday Island, Australia

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Mount Thor, officially gazetted as Thor Peak, is a mountain with an elevation of 1,675 metres (5,495 ft) located in Auyuittuq National Park, on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. The mountain is located 46 km (29 mi) northeast of Pangnirtung and features Earth’s greatest vertical drop of 1,250 m (4,101 ft), with the cliff overhanging at an average angle of 15 degrees from vertical. Despite its remoteness, this feature makes the mountain a popular rock climbing site. Camping is allowed, with the only official site being at the entrance to the Akshayuk Valley near Overlord Peak.

I don’t know about climbing it, maybe a parachute jump from the top.

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Canada

United States

Census year	Population
1610	350
1620	2,302
1630	4,646
1640	26,634
1650	50,368
1660	75,058
1670	111,935
1680	151,507
1690	210,372
1700	250,888
1710	331,711
1720	466,185
1730	629,445
1740	905,563
1750	1,170,760
1760	1,593,625
1770	2,148,076
1780	2,780,369
1790	3,929,214
1800	5,308,483
1810	7,239,881
1820	9,638,453
1830	12,866,020
1840	17,069,453
1850	23,191,876
1860	31,443,321
1870	38,558,371
1880	50,189,209
1890	62,979,766
1900	76,212,168
1910	92,228,496
1920	106,021,537
1930	123,202,624
1940	132,164,569
1950	151,325,798
1960	179,323,175
1970	203,211,926
1980	226,545,805
1990	248,709,873
2000	281,421,906
2010	308,745,538

Germany

Population of Germany in 1939 was 67 million.

Russia

United Kingdom

Australia

Ayres Rock, Australia: A Kangaroo warning road sign in the desert near Uluru

China

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Redwood tree in California

Denali National Park, Alaska

Granada, Spain

Climbing up Everest

Supercell thunderstorm West Texas

Supercell Kansas

Iceberg Alley, Twillingate, Newfoundland

Frosted up Bison, Yellowstone

Kyiv, Ukraine

This is Somerset, Manitoba.  Located in the south central part of the province, 30 miles (50 kilometres) north of the U.S. border.  This is where I grew up.  It is a small town, population 420.  It is getting smaller every year as the residents die off from old age.  The farms have become massive operations.  Fewer people farm the land as the huge machinery doesn’t require as many people to put in and harvest the crops.  This leads to a decline in population in the area.  Not as many services are needed.  Enrollment is down in the schools and this causes a decrease in teachers and support staff. 

But the town still has a movie theater, two bars, a grocery store, two garage repair shops, two restaurants, government offices, skating and curling rinks, a community hall, giant grain elevator and a few miscellaneous other small businesses.  Somerset will still be around for a long time yet.  And the people that live there love the quiet and solitude.