The Land of Vast Places
By Arlo Hemphill
pwelling along the southwestern coast of Africa is the lifeblood of one of the most
productive and still wild ocean ecosystems on the planet. Cold and nutrient rich, the north-flowing Benguela Current influences the character of not only the ocean here, but of the land as well. An eastern boundary current similar to that off California and to the Humboldt off of Peru and Chile, this ocean wilderness supports some of the most spectacular abundances of marine wildlife on the planet. But it’s a trade off. Because the same life the Benguela and her sister currents breath into the ocean, they deprive from the land. The frigid waters that fuel unparalleled marine food chains also lower the temperature of the air near the surface, hindering water vapor from rising to form clouds. The resulting scarcity of rain creates some of the driest places on Earth. In southern Africa, this is the Namib Desert, a massive wilderness spanning 126,600 km2 across much of coastal Namibia and Angola.
This is what sparked my interest in visiting Namibia. Having spent a lot of time in coastal Peru and Southern California, the idea of this same kind of strong ocean dynamic influencing an African landscape intrigued me. It defied everything I knew about Africa – the images of open grasslands and savannahs, the dense Congo rainforest and Rift Valley lakes. Even the Sahara, while likely the most iconic desert on Earth, does not provide a home to fur seals and penguins. The Namib is unique.
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