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The skeleton Coast Park, one of the wonders of Namibia is situated in the northern Namib, extending from the Ugab River northwards for about 500km to the Kunene River, is managed as a wilderness reserve.
Two fishing resorts – Terrace Bay, a rest camp and Torra Bay, a rudimentary campsite- are visited primarily by keen anglers, while the northern section of the park is managed as a wilderness area and can be visited with a private concessionaire who conducts fly in safaris there.
This section of the park is known for its untouched, atmospheric and diverse landscape, and the presence of desert adapted elephant, springbok and gemsbok.
Day visitors who want to drive through the park can obtain the necessary transit permit at the entry point at Ugab Mouth and Springbokwasser.
Visitors need to enter before 15h00 and leave by 17h00 and may not visit Terrace Bay or Torra Bay. Overnight visitors must be in possession of a valid reservation advice for Terrace Bay or Torra Bay and arrive at the checkpoints at Ugab Mouth and Springbokwasser not later than 15h00 and leave from these points not later than 17h00.
The Skeleton Coast History
Centuries before colonial rule, seafarers attempted to tame the skeleton coast. But the treacherous sands and rocky cliffs caused damage and loss cargo and equipment once a ship ran aground. Lives were lost in this way along the coast line. Survivors eventually perished due to the lack of drinking water and sustenance for thousands of kilometres. Early missionaries and the first colonial coastal expeditions reported thousands of pieces of wreckage along the coastline between the Kunene and Orange Rivers.
According to Spanish documents, a Spanish galleon stranded in 1736 at Port d’llheo (Sandwich Harbour) laden with gold, silver and gemstones to the value of millions of US dollars. In 1912, a diamond digger found a handful of Spanish silver coins found between Luderitz and Sandwich Harbour over the years; with the VOC emblem still clearly visible on the tarnished surfaces reveal the fate met by a vessel serving Dutch East India Company.
Another well known wreck is that of a ship of the legendary British East India Company that ran aground on the Namibian coast, carrying a considerable portion of treasure with a large part of the treasures from the chests of the Grand Mogul of Delhi. Many have searched for this wreck with little success, among them the well-known Sir Malcolm Campell, a famous motor racing star in his day. Luderitz was in a state of excited expectation when he arrived in the 1930s but he left quietly, after only a few months with some coins, few pieces of porcelain and holy icons of Portuguese origin.
Shipwrecks are the responsibility of the National Monuments Council, which is authorised to declare a shipwreck as a national monument if it is older than 50 years. This is a precautionary measure to provide a working framework for researchers or marine archaeologists wishing to excavate a wreck. Most often when a ship is wrecked on the Namibian coast, the destructive elements of nature quickly reduce it to small pieces. If not destroyed by the incessant beatings of the waves, it is finished off by the fine sand, inexorable rust and the scorching sun.
Then, looking up and seeing nothing but the grey beach and the cold, blue sea, hearing nothing but the sighing of the wind, under a scorching sun and singing o the birds, one hits one that here, where time is not of the essence, must be the loneliest place to be laid to eternal rest.
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