Writing in the sand

There is a lot of sand here in Namibia.

The entire coast is like a sand sea. This is a result of a clever cyclical process of erosion that take place in river valleys during "rainy seasons". There isn't much rain here, but when it does rain, sand-laden rivers drop their suspended loads into the Atlantic. Onshore currents then deposit the sand along the shore. Then winds pick up and redeposit the sand in the form of massive dunes - the largest sand dunes in the world.

In areas where the supply of sand is reduced, like river mouths, the winds scour the land to form large gravel plains. In many areas of the Namib Desert there is little vegetation aside from lichens found in the gravel plains and in dry river beds where plants can access subterranean water.

I will be home-schooling Atticus while we are here - and I expect there will be plenty of grains of sand to count - and who needs paper when we can write in the sand.