Skeleton Coast - Swakopmund

The owl was staring at me when I closed my comfortable shelter at the Kepinski. A short walk up the hill and a feast of protein was waiting for me.

As the owl went to sleep, and a bunch of squirrels hopped up and down the table looking suspicious for our charity.

A few steps towards East and my horse with wings was waiting with a surprise. ICE. The last thing I was expecting to see on my wing in Africa. In fact it was chilling cold. Who said Africa is hot?     

With the help of the Hotel staff, an African bush de-ice was improvised, and the plane ready again. Skeleton Coast heading 270 than down the coast until Swakopmund

©NunoCoimbra2011

©NunoCoimbra2011

©NunoCoimbra2011

In the year 1486 the first Europeans landed at the coast of Namibia. The Portuguese Diego Cao set up a stone cross at his landing-point, the present-day Cape Cross as a sign of taking possession of the new discovered land through Portugal. Different hiking movements of African people led to the settlement of the Ovambo in the north, of the Himba in the Kaokoveld and the Herero in the middle of the country. Between Nama and Herero it resulted thereby in embittered tribal wars. In the  19th century numerous missionaries began their  activity in different areas of the country. Walvis Bay was used by European mariners and in particular by whale catchers as a port and taken in possession through Great Britain in 1878. At the Skeleton Coast numerous ships smashed; who had the luck to escape for the wet element, died of thirst in the desert of Namib, reaching onto the coast.

©NunoCoimbra2011

©NunoCoimbra2011

The Skeleton Coast (German: Skelettküste) is the northern part of the Atlantic coast of Namibia and south of Angola from the Kunene River south to the Swakop River, although the name is sometimes used to describe the entire Namib Desert coast. The Bushmen of the Namibian interior called the region "The Land God Made in Anger", while Portuguese sailors once referred to it as "The Gates of Hell".

On the coast the upwelling of the cold Benguela current gives rise to dense ocean fogs (called "cassimbo" by the Angolans) for much of the year. The winds blow from land to sea, rain fall rarely exceeds 10 millimetres (0.39 in) annually and the climate is inhospitable. There is a constant, heavy surf on the beaches. In the days of human-powered boats it was possible to get ashore through the surf but impossible to launch from the shore. The only way out was by going through a marsh hundreds of miles long and only accessible through a hot and arid desert.

The coast is named for the bleached whale and seal bones which covered the shore when the whaling industry was still active, as well as the skeletal shipwrecks caused by rocks offshore in the fog. More than a thousand vessels of various sizes and areas litter the coast. Notable wrecks in the region include the Eduard Bohlen, the Otavi, the Dunedin Star, and Tong Taw.

The coast is generally soft, occasionally relieved by rocky outcrops. The southern section consists of gravel plains, while north of Terrace Bay the landscape is dominated by high sand dunes.

©NunoCoimbra2011

©NunoCoimbra2011

©NunoCoimbra2011

©NunoCoimbra2011

The fleet parked at Swakopmund. A completed unexpected organized place in the middle of sand dunes washed by the all mighty, but well known to us Atlantic Ocean. 

I start to feel a strange desperation. The adventure is close to its end.