When Samantha Skyring decided to walk 120km over 7 days through the Namib Desert to the Skeleton Coast in July 2000, she had no idea this experience would initiate the creation of her business, Oryx Desert Salt.During this walk she had several powerful and remarkable face-to-face encounters with Oryx Gazella (gemsbok). It was these experiences which immediately sprang to mind during the process of creating a new brand for desert salt from the Kalahari. Researching the Oryx, Sam was staggered to discover that in a few rare instances, Oryx have gone their entire lives without drinking water. Their hair is hygroscopic (like tiny straws)and so absorbs the moisture from the desert dew at night directly into their bodies, hydrating hyperdermically. Succulents also swell with the dew offering nutrition as well as hydration. However, Oryx cannot survive more than a few months without licking salt for the sodium chloride, minerals and trace elements vital for survival in the harsh conditions of the Kalahari Desert. And so the Oryx, with its striking colouring and majestic presence, became the symbolic icon for Oryx Desert Salt.