Planning an adventure always sounds full of excitement, a daring-do attitude and just a hint of spontaneity. However, planning a trip into the inhospitable reaches of Namibia puts one on the edge of one's seat. We had avoided dwelling upon the strong probability of getting deeply and irretrievably stuck in the fine, red sands of the Namib desert, that stretches for 81,000 km, or of running out of water in probably the oldest and most deceptive deserts in the world...

La Niña is sometimes referred to as the cold phase of ENSO and El Niño as the warm phase of ENSO. These deviations from normal surface temperatures can have large-scale impacts not only on ocean processes, but also on global weather and climate.