Kalahari Desert
The Kalahari Desert is huge, covering 360 square miles of Africa. Many deserts have very little water fall, but this one has enough to produce fairly lush plants. In fact, it’s considered a semi-arid desert, unlike the super dry deserts such as the Atacama Desert which receives only about 1 millimeter of rain each year.
It as the name, but the Kalahari Desert isn’t a desert by the strict definition. 250 millimeters of rain falls in some areas. It’s not regular or dependable rain, which gave the area its name. It’s known as either place without water or great thirst by the people in Africa.
The Kalahari Desert wasn’t always like this. It was once part of a lake called Makgadikgadi. The lake covered a huge area, 80 thousand square kilometers. In the United States all of the great lakes cover about 244,000 square kilometers combined. It was also about 30m deep on average. The lake disappeared completely about 10,000 years ago.
Survivor man filmed an episode in the Kalahari Desert when the host spent six days there. The temperature in the shade was nearly 108°F! Out of the shade, forget about it – 149°F. And at night the temperature plummeted. At lowest, the Survivorman had to sleep in 44F cold. He didn’t know which one he liked less, the cold or the heat.
One of the most important aspects of surviving in a desert like the Kalahari Desert is trying to drink enough water. It’s important everywhere you go. But in 140F heat and dry air dehydration can take place in a hurry. Water was hard to come by for the survivor man. He tried everything to gather some. He built a urine still. He knows best. There was also a few drops of water to be had by chewing the roots of certain plants. In six days he was ready to return to civilization. Six days was the most this trained survivalist could take.
Life in the Kalahari Desert is tough. Would you want to go there?
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