From the moment I set foot in the Namib Desert, I was hooked. It was January 1988, and my two geography professors at Wits University, Dr Peter Tyson and Dr Justin Wilkinson, were leading a two-week field trip to the Gobabeb Research Station, located right on the Kuiseb River. To the north lay the vastness of the gravel plains of the northern Namib; to the south, the world’s tallest linear sand dunes, stretching as far as the eyes could see. In teams of three, we measured local winds, specifically the interaction between the sea breeze and the gradient wind. We did so by releasing weather balloons, every hour, for 10 straight days, which we tracked using rather old, hand-cranked theodolites. At night, we fixed plastic cups to the bottom of the balloons with small candles in each cup and tracked their ascent through several thousand feet, as the sea breeze pushed farther and farther inland. It was an exhausting and utterly exhilarating experience.