It is hard to get good photos out of a chopper. The windows are small, limiting what you can see and allowing only a moment to snap a shot when you see something, the vibration and movement outside messes with the camera auto focus. But this one came out pretty good, considering the everpresent dusty sky hazing out the far distance. Most of southern Afghanistan is a stable, rocky-dusty kind of desert. Here we see a more unusual situation of drifting sand dunes one might "expect" when they think of a place like this. But in reality, such places are fairly isolated and uncommon. The sand dunes are being blown onto the river and carried away, the cool water keeping the hot sand at bay with a clear line of demarcation. Beyond, the river channel is a maze of small canals and irrigated fields of green and gold. It is harvest season in June and soon much of the green will be cut and hauled to large peculiar mud drying / storage buildings and the fields with brown out in the scorching heat. This day the temps were over 130. By August the temps drop to 130 at night ! I do not have words to describe the heat beyond being like climbing in your oven after pulling the Thanksgiving turkey out. It is difficult to breath and you feel like you are going to pass out and/or die. Add in a 60lb pack of gear and it is unbearable. But that is the daily routine, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.