Days 1-5: Skeleton Coast Camp, Skeleton Coast, NamibiaThis Namibia safari is a “flying” safari, starting in Windhoek’s Eros Airport in town. However once you arrive at the Skeleton Coast you will spend all your time on the ground in vehicles and on walks. Everyone on this safari starts and ends together.  You will stay all four nights at Skeleton Coast Camp. This is a six-roomed luxury tented camp is located on the Khumib River within the private concession area of the Skeleton Coast Park. Skeleton Coast Camp is built onto an island in a dry riverbed about 20km inland from the coastline. Each of the 6 tents is large, roomy and has a bathroom en suite. As a result of water shortages, it is unfortunately not possible to offer a laundry service. There is a wonderful old gnarled Leadwood tree which offers shelter from the elements, and this is the dining room for your outdoor meals.
Read more about Skeleton Coast Camp  Because of the uniqueness and vastness of this area, most activities are done in 4x4 vehicles that are closed to the elements. All vehicles have pop-top roofs and sliding windows to enjoy the fine weather. There is however plenty of opportunity to walk and stretch the legs too. Activities include either full day nature drives or walks with a picnic lunch, returning to camp in the evening, or half day nature drives or walks returning to camp for lunch and venturing out again in the afternoon.
 Excursions may include visits to the clay castles of the Hoarusib River, Rocky Point, the roaring dunes, lichen fields, seal colonies, Himba villages, shipwreck sites and secret water seeps that attract wildlife like Oryx, Springbok, Giraffe, Ostrich, Brown Hyena, Jackal and other smaller mammals. Walking also plays a part in the activities; due to the pristine nature of this area many parts are accessible only on foot, as vehicle tracks can damage the environment. Many specially adapted species of plants like Lithops and Welwitschia can be visited in this way.
Activities include the following:
- Full day nature drives with walks
- Excursions to seal colony and natural springs
- Coastal ecology
- Visit to a working Himba village and tracking Desert Elephants
- Visit to the clay castles/roaring dunes/lichen fields as well as other areas of amazing geographical diversity.
About the Skeleton Coast The Skeleton Coast Park is one of our planet’s most inhospitable, but hauntingly beautiful places – it is wild, desolate and uninhabited. It has everything from roaring sand dunes and windswept plains, to towering canyons and saltpans - and even one of the most productive fishing grounds anywhere.
Fresh water springs permeate through barren sands to create rare oases in the desert that sustain pockets of wildlife. Springbok, Gemsbok (Oryx), the rare desert Elephant, Ostrich, Cape fur seals, jackal and Brown Hyena - and even cheetah on rare occasions - eke out an existence in this rugged terrain, along with the vegetation like the ancient welwitschia which has adapted to the harsh conditions.  The arid desert environment in the Skeleton Coast is within the northern reaches of the Namib Desert. The Benguela current brings cold waters all the way from Antarctica and helps to moderate temperatures. The cool air off the ocean meets the hotter desert air and nearly every morning, a cool mist envelops the coastline bringing life sustaining moisture to the desert. By about 9 or 10 in the morning the sun’s rays have burnt off this mist.
There are many regions in the Skeleton Coast. On these safaris, we visit the most isolated, beautiful, remote (and private) northern sector of the park, from just north of Mowe Bay to just south of the Kunene River. The Parks have set aside this area for low volume, exclusive safaris. |
