The Skeleton Coast is a wilderness that lies north of Swakopmund. It is about 500km long and stretches inland for about 100 km. The northern section of the Skeleton Coast Park is a protected wilderness area accessible only to certain fly in safari operators.
Highlights
- Shipping graveyard
- Hauntingly beautiful Kaokoland
- Harsh landscapes
- Unique wildlife
- Seal Colonies
The Skeleton Coast area is really wild and desolate, but incredibly beautiful. There are roaring sand dunes, mountains and canyons, shipwrecks and seal colonies.
Fresh water springs bubble up through the sands in places, forming oases where animals such as desert elephant, black rhino, brown hyena, jackal, Hartmann’s mountain zebra, giraffe, and black-faced springbok, and – even occasionally – lion and cheetah can be spotted.
The gravel plains, are extremely fragile and susceptible to vehicle damage. Many smaller species of fauna shelter below the pebbles and are destroyed by vehicles, as are the eggs and chicks of the Damara Tern.
It is this delicate nature that makes this such an exclusive, protected destination.
The coast is named for the bleached whale and seal bones which covered the shore – a leftover from when the whaling industry was still active – as well as the skeletal remains of shipwrecks caused by dense fog and rocks offshore.
Beautiful, unique and exclusive, the Skeleton Coast certainly deserves a visit.
