Skeleton Coast

The so called Skeleton Coast is a 40 km wide and 500 km long coastal stretch in Namibia, a hostile but fascinating area. Here the cold and unpredictable Benguela Current of the Atlantic Ocean clashes with the dune and desert landscape of north-western Namibia.

 

The name Skeleton Coast derived most probably firstly from the huge numbers of stranded whales that lost their life here and whose skeletons could be seen all over the place. Secondly, numerous ships have stranded at the Skeleton Coast thanks to the thick fog, the rough sea, unpredictable currents and stormy winds. The sailors who were able to make it to the land did not stand a chance of survival at this inhospitable coast and died of thirst.

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One of the oldest shipwrecks in the Skeleton Coast region is the wreck near the town of Oranjemund which was wrecked during the 1530s. It is known to be one of the oldest discovered shipwrecks of the Iberian Atlantic tradition in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Despite the hostile character of the Skeleton Coast, there are quite a number of wild animals to observe, for example desert-adapted elephants, rhinos, desert lions, brown hyenas, jackals, giraffes, seals, oryx, kudus and zebras. Also some plants are incredibly adapted to the rainless area of the Skeleton coast and depend solely on the daily fog from the Atlantic Ocean: There are welwitschias, !Nara melons, several lithops succulent plants (often called “living stones”), lichen and pencil bush (ink bush).