- [first lines]
- David Attenborough - Narrator: A third of the land on our planet is desert. These great scars on the face of the Earth
- [rolling sand dunes]
- David Attenborough - Narrator: appear to be lifeless. But, surprisingly, none are. In all, life manages somehow to keep a precarious hold.
- David Attenborough - Narrator: Few rocks can withstand the continuous blast of the sand-carrying wind. These outcrops are standing in Egypt's White Desert. But they will not do so for much longer. They're being inexorably chiseled away, and turned into more sand.
- David Attenborough - Narrator: Of all the places visited by the Planet Earth team, the most remote was Mongolia's Gobi desert.