Setting the Scene, Terrain

To make a basic terrain I made a plane and increased it in size to be big enough for the scene, I then used the "Displace" modifier with a height map taken from here, and increasing the strength to 50.

Then I applied a sand texture taken from here.

Using the material slate editor and connecting the node to a standard material, I then scaled and tiled the image to make it look appropriate.

I'm happy with the result and it was quick and easy to achieve.