Skeleton Coast Safari

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. 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.

This 4-day safari is a "flying" safari, starting at Windhoek's Eros Airport on a Wednesday at about 0945 and finishing back in Windhoek on a Saturday in the mid-afternoon. However once we arrive at the Skeleton Coast we spend all our time on the ground in vehicles and on walks. Everyone on this safari starts and ends together.

We stay all three nights at Skeleton Coast Camp. This is a six-roomed luxury tented camp in the heart of the reserve. Skeleton Coast Camp is built onto an island in a dry riverbed about 20km inland from the coastline. Each tent is large and roomy and has a bathroom en suite.

This safari is unlike any of our other safaris. The area is so vast and there is so much to see and experience that we abandon our traditional early morning and afternoon activities. We leave camp after breakfast and spend the full day exploring the park. A picnic lunch is enjoyed out in the wild and we return to base camp in the late afternoon. We travel in 4x4 Land Rovers with pop-top roofs, and cover an extraordinary variety of terrain. Nature drives may include visits to the clay castles of the Hoarasub, Rocky Point, the roaring dunes, lichen fields, seal colonies, and remnants of shipwrecks. Walking may also play a part in the activities. Due to the pristine nature of this area, many parts are accessible only on foot. Many specially adapted species of plants like lithops and welwitschia can be visited in this way.