13 October - Tommy's Living Desert Tour in the dunes of Swakopmund

The dunes of the Namib - near Swakopmund

Tommy Collard is a little of a legend in Swakopmund and for good reason. He was the local pioneer of the 'living desert tour' and has now been running this tour for twenty years. He boasted that he has delivered the same tour to hundreds of school kids for no cost and also government ministers. The tour still seems to be very much in demand despite that fact that he now has quite a few competitors. Trip Advisor has given him excellent ratings [Out of 110 English language reviews 99 give him the rating of 'excellent' and another 9 - 'very good'.

After our experience I would add my name to the excellent column. He has the knowledge, experience and good humoured banter to make an excellent guide. And the enthusiasm. After twenty years of tour you might think he could fall into a routine and / or cut corners. We did not see any of that. In fact he wanted to stay out and look for more reptiles.

As the pictures below demonstrate we saw some excellent reptiles and spiders plus top desert dune scenery with a bushman who knew the country as well as anyone ever has. The trip finished with an exciting drive up and down some magnificent dunes.

This trip is a must for anyone visiting Swakopmund.

When we were reflecting about this tour we could not help but think that there are real opportunities for this sort of tour in a variety of places in Australia's arid lands. Australia, the driest continent and home to a huge range of desert landscapes should be able to the 'living desert' experience very well. I'm now keen to look!

BIRD OF THE DAY! - Chestnut banded Plover

Tommy, of Tommy's Tour's fame, talking to Ray

Our dune climbing vehicle

Tommy talking to the group by way of an introduction to the tour

Horned Adder

Horned Adder - grey / brown phase

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Horned Adder - orange phase individual

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Tommy reading the bushman's newspaper

Namib Dune Gecko

Namib Dune Gecko

Going

going

gone..

Namaqua Chameleon

Namaqua Chameleon

Namaqua Chameleon and fans

handling a Namib Sand Snake

Tommy with the Tractrac Chat

Tractrac Chat

Side-winder tracks

Going up

Our vehicle cruising through the dunes

And again

And again