Skeleton Coast Park

Skeleton Coast Park Map

The Skeleton Coast is so named for all the ghostly shipwrecks that are beached on these remote and inaccessible white shores. This 2 million hectare park is one of the most inhospitable and least visited places on earth - a challenge for those on a Namibia safari. To get there by road entails an equally tough drive through the rugged mountains of Damaraland.

Only 4 wheel drive vehicles dare enter for fear of getting stuck in the soft sand and running out of fresh water, and a fly-in safari is the only other alternative. The attraction for visitors is its untouched and mysterious barren beauty, swept by cold sea breezes and often enveloped in a dense fog.

This fog accounts for the many shipwrecks and the unique ecosystem which gives life to most unusual plants. The strange 'Elephant's Foot' plant anchors itself in rock crevices while desert succulents like lithops, look exactly like pebbles until a tiny yellow flower emerges.

The windswept dunes and flat plains give way in places to rugged canyons with walls of richly coloured volcanic rock and extensive mountain ranges. Elephants are animals that you would least expect to find here, but they have become specially adapted to their desert home and have even been filmed surfing down sand dunes. Brown hyenas patrol the shoreline and the ubiquitous black-backed jackal maintains a constant lookout for any opportunities. This strange land is worth a visit for the intrepid explorer.

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