Deserts....

The Golden Evening in a desert

The Lands of Little Water

Deserts are places that get very little rain through out the year – so little that most trees and plants cannot grow there. Some deserts even go for years without rain. They are extremely difficult places for human beings to live in. The few plants, animals, and people who live there have to be really tough to survive. Every continent except Europe has a desert. Even Antarctica has one, and that is a frigid desert.

A vast desert with lovely white sand all around

 Most deserts, however, are arid or dry deserts with miles and miles of sand, baked earth, and barren rock. In the daytime, these places took like lost worlds – hot, dry, and silent. Usually, the only plants growing there are low thorny ones. These plants store most of the water they are able to collect. It may be a long time before their next drink.

A desert ship caravan travelling through the desert

            At night it can be quite cold in the desert. That’s when creatures that have been hiding from the  burning rays of the sum, come out of their homes. Many of the creatures are lizards and insects such as scorpions. There are also different kinds of rats as well as other, larger animals.

Date trees , like camels have the special ability to survive in the tough desert weather.

            You can hear the animals squeaking and growling near water holes and springs. That’s where the coyotes, badgers, bobcats, foxes, and birds gather – all hunting for food and water. When the rare spring does bubble up in the desert, plants and trees begin to grow. An island of green like this is called an ‘oasis’.

            Many people choose to live in the desert. In late afternoon the sky turns crimson and gold, and the mountains make purple shadow. While at night the stars seem close enough to touch. Another amazing thing about desert it that at night temperature falls dramatically therefore nights in the deserts are very colder.

Bare trees standing in a desert.

Desert sands are known to ‘sing’. For some reason that scientists do not yet fully understand. It is also said to  be making a booming, barking, or humming noise when walked upon or moved by some other natural force.