Reviews of Skeleton Coast (From 11 Acclaimed Safari Experts)

Expert

Philip Briggs –

ZA

Visited: Wet season

Philip is an acclaimed travel writer and author of many guidebooks, including the Bradt guides to Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.

Coast of ghost-ships

Overall rating

4/5

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Like most of Namibia’s parks, I wouldn’t regard Skeleton Coast – which protects the empty coastline north of Swakopmund – to be a conventional safari destination, but the area is memorable for its sense of wild windswept desolation. Unlike much of the more southerly Namib, this is a rocky desert rather than a sandy one, and it seems rather bizarre to see the surf of the Atlantic battering down on this otherwise dry and barren landscape. Fishermen rate the area very highly, but its main draw for wildlife enthusiasts is Cape Cross, home to a breeding colony of around 100,000 Cape fur seals that assaults your sense on every level – initially, it is the stench of guano and noise that overwhelms, but once you are used to that, it is fascinating to sit here and watch the interaction and politics of these engaging marine carnivores, keeping an eye open for the jackals that frequently raid the colony to feed on the seal cubs. The birdlife can also be interesting, with resident seabirds such as black oystercatcher joined seasonally by all manner of migrant waders from the northern hemisphere.

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Expert

Stuart Butler –

UK

Visited: April

Stuart is a travel writer and author of numerous Lonely Planet guidebooks, including 'Kenya', 'Rwanda' and 'Tanzania'.

The Desert of Bones

Overall rating

4/5

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My experiences of the Skeleton Coast have probably been rather different to that of many of the other reviewers here. The reason being that my visits to this bleak, cold and scary coastline have been less for the wildlife and more to go surfing. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t appreciated the uniqueness of the environment and its small collection of unusual creatures. And truly, everything about the Skeleton Coast is unusual. There are dead plants that live a thousand years and beetles who drink by climbing to the top of a sand dune and sticking their bums (if beetles have such things) in the air to ‘catch’ the moisture that comes in with the thick morning mists. Yeah you guessed it this isn’t classic Big Five safari country, but it will appeal to those who appreciate the smaller things in life – and can get excited about viewing lichen (which is far more interesting than you probably ever realised!).

There are some larger mammals here including rarely seen desert adapted lions and elephants and though you’d be lucky to see those you won’t fail to see jackals pacing the high tide line and quite probably the Hound of the Baskervilles-like brown hyenas.

And then there’s the sea life. The cold waters that crash into the Skeleton Coast are some of the richest in the world. There are some huge colonies of Cape Fur Seals here and watching them play in the surf off Cape Cross is a highlight for everyone. Everyone bar surfers that is. The cold waters and large number of seals attract another large creature of the oceans and this one has big sharp teeth and likes nothing better than a seal for dinner. Unfortunately it’s favourite type of seal is a weak, slow swimming, injured one and to a shark that’s exactly what most surfers look like. So while most visitors love getting up close to the seals for me and my surfing companions the arrival of seals on our chosen beach was generally greeted with nothing but fear of what might be following them!

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Expert

Anthony Ham –

AU

Visited: Multiple times

Anthony is a photographer and writer for travel magazines and Lonely Planet, including the guides to Kenya and Botswana & Namibia.

1 person found this review helpful.

Skeleton Coast: Sand Dunes Meet the Sea

Overall rating

4/5

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My pick for Africa’s most spectacular coastline, the Skeleton Coast combines the drama of perfectly sculpted sand dunes, crashing Atlantic breakers and wild seas, and unusual wildlife. The shipwrecks that line this coastline speak to nature’s raw power, which is always my most enduring memory of a visit here, and there’s no thrill quite like driving along a deserted beach between sand dunes and ocean. It is impossible to be unmoved by the view that greets you from the summit of a sand dune as an icy fog sweeps in off the Atlantic. And a chance glimpse of one of the last remaining desert lions, made famous in the National Geographic documentary Vanishing Kingdoms, is truly one of the most thrilling sights in nature. The slender-horned gemsbok or oryx, too, is an icon of these parts, and you might see brown hyenas lurking around the vast colonies of Cape fur seals. But perhaps more than anything else, it’s the sense out here of a wild and beautiful land remote from the world and its clamor that will live longest in the memory.

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Expert

Mary Fitzpatrick –

US

Visited: Multiple times

Mary is an acclaimed travel writer and author of many Lonely Planet guidebooks, including South Africa, Tanzania, East Africa and Africa.

1 person found this review helpful.

Eerie Desolation & Profound Beauty

Overall rating

4/5

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Skeleton Coast National Park, stretching over 500km/310mi from the Ugab River in the south to the Kunene River and the Angolan border in the north, is one of the most desolate and starkly beautiful places I have ever been. The cold Benguela Current running along the coast clashes with the hot air of the desert, giving rise to a thick fog that wraps the barren, rock-strewn landscapes in its shrouds and nourishes an array of colourful, microscopic lichen. Waves pound the shore, Cape gannets plunge into the sea and cormorants roost on the riggings of shipwrecks that dot the coast, while jackals and brown hyena scavenge in the shadows, and desert-adapted lions prowl amongst the rocks. There are only a handful of camps in this park, the entire northern section of which is only accessible by previously arranged permit. For a gentler and logistically easier introduction to the area, start with a visit to the Cape Cross seal colony, about 80km/50mi south of the park’s southern boundary, where you can smell and observe thousands of these boisterous, rather ill-tempered but fascinating creatures at close range.

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Expert

Dale R Morris –

ZA

Visited: Multiple times

Dale is a multi-award-winning writer and photographer with more than 500 published magazine articles featured in magazines such as National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Travel Africa, and CNN Travel.

2 people found this review helpful.

Smelly seals and skeletal ships

Overall rating

4/5

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Bush Vibe:

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The Skeleton Coast National Park is where shipwrecks abound, and a pervasive and eerie fog often restricts visibility to mere meters.

The fog is a product of the cold Benguela Current mixing with warm air from the Namib desert and is a very important source of moisture for the region’s plants and animals. There are geckos who lick the dew from their eyes, beetles who climb sand dunes and collect moisture with their butts, and there are succulent plants (the African equivalent of cacti) that subsist on mist, and nothing else.

This regular swirl of vapor typically burns off once the day warms up, so you needn’t fear you’ll be robbed of the magical desert vistas this 500km coastal wilderness is rightly famous for.

My favorite spot in the park is the Cape Cross seal colony where I was assailed by the sights, sounds, and smells of 80,000 argumentative and exceptionally aromatic seals. The fishy fragrance was almost overwhelming. I saw jackals scavenging the tide line there, and I was treated to the spectacle of brown hyenas slinking through the colony in the hopes of grabbing a seal pup or two.

Cape Cross is named for a stone crucifix that was originally erected in 1486 by a Portuguese explorer named Diogo Cão. His mission was to forge a sea route around Africa but alas Diogo died there and henceforth became known as the Skeleton Coast’s first seafaring victim. There, of course, would be hundreds more to come.

No one actually knows how or why Diogo expired on the Skeleton Coast. Some speculate he ate a dodgy seal and died of dysentery. Others say he was overwhelmed by the smell.