After falling asleep looking into the beautiful black sky the prior night, I woke up to a soft voice asking if I would like some coffee or tea. Now, I am normally not one to handle any pampering at all, but I must admit, it was really nice having a cup of hot tea while I was still in my bedroll. And of course they had brought some fresh water to my outdoor washbasin right next to my cot. I could get use to that now and then!

We had a really good breakfast, filled up our water and packed everything up. Then with our daypacks we headed out for a second day of walking across the dunes.

At one point in the walk, we got a close up introduction to the Sociable Weaver Birds and their nest colony. As you can see in the pictures, they build individual nests that are all in one big mass, each with their own entrance from underneath. I understand that this is one way to help avoid big snakes from climbing a tree and robbing their nests.

The nests continue to be added on as more birds join the colony until at some point they actually get too heavy for the tree and the branch(es) holding nests can break.

We left the dunes and sand for a bit as we hiked up over a low pass in the mountains into a wide, expansive valley.

We saw several partial remains (skulls and horns) of dead large animals along the trail. The remains that are not eaten tend to mummify due to the extreme dryness.

Another interesting sight was a bunch of little trails through the open sand. It turns out that most of those were from beetles. The little guys actually burrow just under the surface as they move along while occasionally popping out for a short distance. It leaves interesting tracks on the surface - from underneath.

The hike started out early while it was still cool. In the early afternoon at its hottest point, the trail organizers had setup a shaded way station under a lone tree, complete with magazines, chairs, and snacks. We were able to take a few hours off to rest and nap as needed while we waiting the temperature to start dropping.

From there we had a relatively short hike to our second campsite which, as usual, was all setup for us. Complete with bedrolls, shower, outhouses, and of course another sundowner before another great meal. Of course, our Teddy Bear Beetles were there to provide entertainment for a second night!