Skeleton Coast Self-Drive & Kayak, Namibia

Overview

The Skeleton Coast earned its name from the whale and seal bones that once lined its beaches in the age of industrial whaling, and from the shipwrecks of vessels driven onto a shore where south-flowing cold Atlantic current meets north-flowing desert air to produce permanent fog banks that roll 60 kilometres inland before burning off. It is one of the most remote and inhospitable coastlines on earth — and one of the most spectacular. A 14-day self-drive routes south to north from Lüderitz on the southern Namibian coast through the Sperrgebiet diamond-prohibited territory to Swakopmund, then north along the Skeleton Coast to the Ugab River and the northern sector — a zone so restricted it requires a special permit and can only be visited on fly-in safaris or on foot with a registered guide. The southern section is accessible by 4WD and rewards with: the rusted hulk of the Eduard Bohlen beached 500m from the current shore (the dunes moved around it), the fur seal colony at Cape Cross (100,000 animals, overwhelming in every sense), the red sand dunes of the Namib tumbling directly into the Atlantic, and the desert-adapted wildlife that somehow survives — black rhino, desert lion, and the Welwitschia mirabilis plant, a living fossil estimated at up to 2,000 years old. The kayaking section runs three days from Swakopmund on the open Atlantic coast among Cape fur seals and African penguins. The cold Benguela current means the water never exceeds 16°C even in summer. The seals approach to within metres of the kayak out of pure curiosity.

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