Dune-Buried Coastal Road

Dune-Buried Coastal Road is an original illustration set in Namibian Atlantic Coast. It lies in the tropics, where the climate is cold desert — arid, with freezing winters.

A clean tongue of dune sand overtops and buries half a gravel road. Parallel sand streamers cross the exposed surface, and a low slip face is already forming on the downwind shoulder. The road reappears dark and clear further along, under coastal fog.

Why is a dune allowed to cross the road?

This is a dune caught mid-migration, and the road is the scale bar — it shows how fast sand moves when nothing holds it. The streamers cross at an angle that gives the wind direction, and the slip face forming on the far shoulder shows the dune is still advancing. Fog on a desert coast means cold offshore water: enough moisture to condense, never enough to rain.

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