Tommy's living desert tour or how to encounter the small animals living in the sand dunes in Swakopmund! This was truly a unique experience, another kind of safari where you discover chameleons, lezards and snakes. Quite a change from the giraffes and elephants!
Navigate back to the complete Namibia Travel Guide
INFO & REVIEW - Tommy's living desert tour
As my last day in Namibia arrived, I reached the coastal town of Swakopmund. It offers many activities and it was hard to reduce my selection. At the end I went with a 2 hour flight over Namibia and this other kind of safari in the desert nearby.
REVIEW FOR TRAVEL PLANNING ADDICTS - Tommy's Living Desert Tour
First of all, I have selected myself and paid fully for that tour. This review is based on my own experience in November 2012.
- Tour: Tommy's Living Desert Tour
- Organisation: no hiccups, it all went smoothly
- Guide: this is the awesome part, he is really amazing and knowledgeable and experienced. I was very impressed with his capacity to find the tiny animals.
- Ambiance: people looking at white sand trying to spot a 1m white snake, crazy fun ambiance!
- Vehicle: in good conditions. We were more than normal size and he hired a 4WD driver and his car to take us on top of the bus
- Food: morning break was OK
- General evaluation: I do recommend strongly to do this tour
- Don't forget those are wild animals and sightings are not guaranteed...
The search for animals in the sand
The safari with giraffes, elephants, lions and all are thrilling but watching Tommy’s barefoot in this sand dunes and desert findings us very small animal was a delight.
This is the search area scenery and Tommy searching barefoot. You just wonder on Earth he can find those tiny spots in the sand… well 20 years of experience can help.
The chameleon
From the distance, what they pointed to us looked like a big rock and I still did not believe it was an animal until I was standing 2 meters away. Meet the Chameleon:
The Snake
My favorite was the snake we found. It moves very fast and is almost the color of the sand. Sometimes it leaves small traces, so Tommy was following them for a long time and for almost a kilometer I think until we spotted it. It moves quite fast so once Tommy places it back on the sand we saw it moving sideways and disappear in the sand.
The Geckos
We found several geckos and were able to look at them up-close. Some has fun getting some new hearings as they bit wuite hard. When we left it in the sand, we discovered how he makes its way through the sand. Fascinating to watch.
Video of the geckos getting in the sand:
And more fauna and flora...
There were more animals and plants to discover, but not aas fascinating
The bonus pleasure of 4Wdriving in the sand dunes
Want to see MORE of NAMIBIA?
Discover more things to do with photos and planning information in my online Namibia Travel Guide.
Crazy what you can find under your feet when you look!