Namibia is South Africa’s neighbor to the north west. It is a relatively new country and gained its independence from South African rule on March 21, 1990. My first visit there was over 10 years ago, and I was immediately hooked on it's uniqueness and beauty. The thing that people don’t realize about Namibia is that it is huge, but very sparsely populated. It’s roughly twice the size of California, Oregon and Washington combined, but has a little over 3 million people in the entire place! It does have very good infrastructure and well-maintained roads, so it’s one of the few places in Africa where a "road trip" is not a terrible option. It’s just that days can involve long drives given the distances involved in visiting many different and beautiful locations - and there are loads of them! Sometimes it’s better to focus on a more specific area and fully immerse yourself. A few of years ago, I started visiting the Skeleton Coast area which covers 310 miles along the Atlantic Ocean. I traveled mostly along the northern end, close to the border with Angola. On this trip, I decided to head a bit south of Walvis Bay, a fairly good sized city, nearby an extensive part of the Skeleton Coast − named for whale and seal bones that litter the coast and for the many of shipwrecks, within the Namib–Naukluft National Park. This park in western Namibia is situated on the Atlantic Ocean and encompasses part of the Namib Desert (considered the world's oldest desert) and the lagoon at Sandwich Harbour, where we concentrated our trip going into the dunes. One of the biggest reasons I wanted to visit this area was because of the incredibly well preserved shipwrecks in this part of the desert. I found a good local outfitter and got permits so we could actually camp overnight in the solitude of the beautiful dunes and take our time visiting these places. Our first stop was the Shawnee shipwreck that is beached at the edge of massive sand
dunes and ran aground under mysterious circumstances in 1976. I photographed this rusted hulk in the early morning as the fog lifted and the ship appeared like an apparition with the waves flowing around it. I had plans to photograph it later in the day as well. Our outfitter had all our tents packed up on the vehicle's roof and that evening he set up a lovely campsite, including a full kitchen, in the dunes just above the stranded Shawnee. It was absolutely beautiful, watching the sunset and enjoying a nice cocktail, a "sundowner", in this isolated part of Africa. A toast to a great day's adventure! The other big attraction in the vastness of the desert is the Eduard Bohlen shipwreck. It ran aground on September 5th, 1909. The 310-foot-long cargo ship now lies partially buried beneath the sand. Strangely, the ship appears to be stranded within the middle of the desert. In the years after it sank, the desert began encroaching upon the shoreline. It’s now more than 1,000 feet away from the water! On the way as we traversed the landscape we'd be driving at the edge of the waves along the coastline. As the steep dunes descended straight into the ocean or when the tide was too high, we drove inland and went up and down the massive dunes like being on a giant roller coaster, getting stuck a few times. But with some shoveling we eventually managed to free ourselves. In addition to the relics strewn across the barren desert is an abundance of wildlife. We encountered jackals, ostriches, springbok and oryx - which are antelopes uniquely adapted to arid places. Within the dunes are small oases of fresh water, which helps sustain many desert species. The coast has large flocks of flamingos and many sea birds thriving there, as well as huge colonies of seals. This adventure was a fantastic trip and one of the most unusual experiences in Namibia. I can't wait to go back! •
The wreck of the Edouard Bohlen half buried in the sand.
A pair of Black-backed Jackals relaxing at the edge of the coast.
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