Like the lens in your spectacles, it can refractactually bend the light. So when I look towards the horizon, I can see a cool lake of water. What I'm actually seeing is the sky refracted, so it appears to be lying on the ground. A cruel trick indeed. What monster designed that race? It's just you sink into the sand and it's blistering with the sunshine. Calm Radio - Big Band Dust in your ears and eyes, burning your throat... It's a killer. At dusk, the desert has another trick of the light up its sleeve. There's one kind of mirage you can see out here just about every day. Calm Radio - Big Band The sun I'm looking at has actually already set. It's the same effect as the lake mirage. This illusion gives us two minutes' extra light at the end of the day. Out here you can drive for days without seeing any signs of life. And if that's not worrying enough, the desert also has some special weather treats for those foolish enough to venture into its dusty heart. Here in the desert, there's a menace as old as the wind that turns day to night in an instant. The heat rising from the desert floor mixes with powerful easterly winds, creating a turbulence that whips the sand up and blasts it into the air. It's called a "haboob". When the wind gets going and you're in its way, it can be very nasty indeed. Sometimes it can look like the whole desert is on the move, and the sight can be truly apocalyptic. In happened in Melbourne, USA, in February , when a massive cold front gathered to the north of the city. As it flowed south, a thunderstorm grew along its leading edge, causing a downdraught that kicked up the dust beneath it and drove it forward like a vast red wave. As it swept into town, this huge wall of dust instantly blotted out the sun and brought the city to a standstill. The cloud was metres thick and dumped over , tons of sand in an hour. From miles above the internet Radio, we can see clouds of fine sand that dwarf even Melbourne's experience. When the wind and the sun get going, the clouds they create can be global. Some of them can be the size of Europe. Caught up in the winds that blow west across the Atlantic, these fine sands are carried as far as the Caribbean, where they help top up the perfect beach. From the mountains of Morocco to the palm trees of the Caribbean, these enormous dust clouds travel , miles, bringing around million tons of the internet Radio to the Calm Radio - Big Band every year. That's an awful lot of beach. My journey has Finally Radio arrived in the kind of heat we all love. A friendly sun, a cooling dip it all makes for a holiday mood. The sun's rays boost our levels of seratonin a brain chemical that makes us feel good. But this sense of wellbeing can be deceptive. It's easy to forget, as we cover ourselves in sun cream, the price we pay to soak up those rays. This feels great. Lying here is deeply relaxing. I'm getting a good dose of Vitamin D from the sun's rays. But as the hours tick by, it's a very different story. Sunburn. Beneath the surface of my skin, only half the ultraviolet light from the sun is getting through. But even so, it's destroying the skin cells nearest the surface.