The Swakop River Canyon is formed by mountainous ridges on either side of a sandy riverbed. I took this photograph of one of the hills bordering this river bed to show dolerite intrusion into the rock beds. We drove along and birded this area the afternoon of August 11, 2012. The Swakopmund River normally flows once every 5 to 10 years and is typically a dry river bed (last major rains occurred in the spring of 2011). The barren landscape is lined with hills that are covered with rocky outcrops of black-colored dolerite. Temperatures were in the mid-70's on this partly cloudy afternoon.