For those who can’t wait for Andrew Garfield’s next outing as Peter Parker’s superhero alter ego here’s a spine-tingling spiderman tale of our very own…

Say hello to Willem Mutenga, he’s the one calmly holding that rather hairy, huge and deathly-looking white spider and not even batting an eyelid. Willem – who modestly prefers to sport a sweeping ostrich feather in his bush-hat rather than blue tights and a mask – is a guide with Wilderness Safaris, who run game drives on request to look for fascinating dune critters like this from their very chic Little Kulala lodge deep in the dunes of the Namib-Naukluft.

Willem and friend

Willem is something of an expert when it comes to hunting out Namibia’s dastardly, desert-adapted predators. Earlier in 2013, on assignment for ‘The Daily Bugle’ (or should we say ‘Travel Africa’ magazine), we went out on a secret mission with him into the dunes at sunrise to track down and photograph the infamous and elusive white lady dancing spider in its extremely well-hidden lair.

A dancing white lady spider

Many people drive on by the quieter dunes where such amazing creatures make their home in the rush to get to the ancient Namib desert’s impressive tourist hotspots. But we’re happy today to yomp in sand less-travelled. Here only the sound of dune larks breaks the silence. The wildlife is less disturbed and the myriad tracks, criss-crossing the orange-red sand like fine embroidery, are not made by humans, but by hundreds of hyperactive little critters from miniscule ants to sinuous sidewinding snakes.

The trap door of a dancing white lady’s lair, surrounded by the footprints of nocturnal comings and goings

While we’re marvelling at these mini-footprints and the perfect circles in the sand drawn by a single, wind-blown blade of grass, ‘Spiderman’ is getting to work finding the nest of a white lady dancing spider for us. When he calls us over to says he’s found one we’re not convinced. We seem to be looking at – well – nothing. Then we spot it too. A small mark in the sand looks just like a child has drawn a tiny sun there. It’s only the size of a coin and easily missed.

Willem uses a blade of grass to delicately lift the ‘coin’ like a little flap – it’s the trapdoor of the spider’s lair. It’s completely round, like a tiny man-hole cover, and disguised by sand grains. It’s a mind-blowing feat of desert architecture. A hinged flap in sand?

We’re already open-mouthed, but our jaws drop further as Willem announces the resident spider is still at home – huge, white and hairy. They’re supposed to have a mildly venomous bite, but superhero Willem very briefly pops it on his hand for our inspection. The cunning and ghostly white spider cleverly crafts a burrow out of silk that looks for all the world like a knitted purse, or chain-mail, except for the fact that it’s made of sand. It then closes this burrow with a silken trap door forming this secret flap in the sand we’re now excitedly photographing. Who knew?

Spider with the silk lining from a burrow – we found this one dug up by a jackal