Sand
Jordan · March to April and October to November
Wadi Rum
Sandstone towers, Bedouin camps and the quietest night sky in the Middle East
Wadi Rum · Sossusvlei · Atacama
Sand
Three deserts on three continents, each with a different reason to go: sandstone towers and Bedouin fires in Jordan, the tallest dunes on earth in Namibia, the clearest sky on the planet above the Atacama.
A desert is a place where the month matters more than the destination. The same dune is a pleasure at seven in the morning in May and a punishment at noon in January, and the model on every page in this realm exists to say which. The three deserts here are chosen for range: a sandstone desert at a thousand metres, a sand sea at the edge of an ocean, a high plateau at 2,400 metres with volcanoes on the horizon.
What they share is the night. Deserts are dark-sky places, the temperature drop after sunset is the day’s best hour, and the plans that work put the walking at dawn and the driving at dusk.
Everything in Sand
Sand
Jordan · March to April and October to November
Wadi Rum
Sandstone towers, Bedouin camps and the quietest night sky in the Middle East
Sand
Namibia · May to September
Sossusvlei and Deadvlei
The tallest dunes on earth and a clay pan of trees that died nine centuries ago
Sand
Chile · March to May and September to November
Atacama Desert
The driest place on earth, geysers at 4,300 metres and salt lakes with flamingos
Climate by month
Wadi Rum
Sossusvlei and Deadvlei
Atacama Desert
The desert hour you would choose
Questions people ask
Which desert first?
Wadi Rum: two hours from Petra, mature infrastructure, two or three days. The Namib needs a Namibian road trip around it, and the Atacama needs altitude planning.
Are deserts dangerous?
Not with the rules on this page. The accidents are heat, gravel roads and walking out of sight of camp, all of them avoidable.
What is the best month?
Different for each: spring and autumn in Jordan, the southern winter in Namibia, any month but the summer storms in the Atacama. The Climate Simulator compares all three.
The Simulation Brief
One place, one simulator, one honest number. Every second Sunday.
No newsletter theatre. A short e-mail with the place we modelled, what the model said and what the ground said back.