Photo of the Day 35

Trekking the Namib Desert, Namibia, 1998

Photograph by O. Louis Mazzatenta

Alone in a vast expanse of sand, a man treks across giant dunes in Namibia's Namib Desert. One of the driest places on Earth, the Namib necessitates resourceful adaptations. Snakes, spiders, beetles, and lizards can survive here only because fog delivers a wisp of vital moisture as it rolls in from the ocean most nights.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Life Grows Up," April 1998, National Geographic magazine)