The Gobabeb Research & Training Centre is mostly a collection of low and unremarkable buildings – except for one.  It’s iconic water tower is visible for miles in every direction.  Water is pumped into the bulbous top of the tower from shallow wells in the (dry) Kuiseb river bed.  From there, the tower provides pressurized water to the Centre.  The water is pure and sweet; not salty at all.  The tower has sort of come to symbolize the station and everything we do here, because isn’t a desert defined by water, or lack of it?  Without the tower we scientists just couldn’t survive here.  The native plants, animals and microorganisms may not have a water tower, but each species has it’s own tricks for collecting and conserving water.

For example, some native beetles here spend hours standing on their heads during early mornings when there is coastal fog.  Water droplets condense on their bodies and run downwards into their mouths.

The conference is over.  Tonight we camp in the dunes.  I’ll try very hard to keep the sand out of my camera, because I need it to collect data.  Tomorrow after we get back from the dunes the fieldwork begins.