Weather: Namibia, Angola

If it's dry land you crave, try Namibia. Featuring not one, but two types, of desert, temperatures here are still remarkably comfortable. Most of the nation is a high, sunny plateau, which keeps summer readings somewhat in check. Winter mornings are crisp, but the afternoons typically warm to well above 16°C/60°F. A stray winter shower may reach the far north, but otherwise, Namibia's only noteworthy rains fall in summer, when thundershowers strike every few days along the escarpment, seldom bringing heavy downpours. On the seaward side of the escarpment is a classic example of that global rarity – a coastal desert. The cold upwelling in the Benguela current helps keep the air stable year round. Some parts of the desolate coast are fog-shrouded more than half the year; they actually get more water from the fog itself than from their scant rainfall. Even the Namib dunes as far as 100km/60 miles inland are fogged over on as many as sixty days each year, when the fog may produce motreen (drizzle). Coastal temperatures seldom get below 8°C/46°F or above 25°C/77°F range, except when hot downslope berg winds arrive from the interior. The coastal desert extends into southern Angola; rainfall becomes more prevalent as you continue north and east. The interior of Angola gets a fair number of thundershowers, largely in the summer.