The region, roughly the size of Texas with one-tenth the population, seems to be reverting back to what Darwin first saw as "wretched gravel plains."

Around the city center stretches a large gravel plain.

After a time we dropped down from the hills on to a flat gravel plain where the track ran straight as a drawn line.

Flat-topped mountains and clusters of basalt chimneys rise from the gravel plain.

In the Namib they grow on shrubs, rocks and pebbles of the gravel plains.

The gravel plains and rolling mound-shaped hills gave little definition.

Its mountain ranges are intercepted by wide gravel plains, which run into sandy, vegetated riverbeds and hot, dry valleys.

She didn't know when she'd stopped walking; she now stood motionless on the gravel plain.

Her long hair drifted back from her face, caught and held by the strong wind blowing across the gravel plain.

The gravel plains between the dunes, are also protected and are incredibly fragile - if you drive on this the damage will remain for many years.