Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ment, Namibian Wildlife Resorts (NWR) imposes very strict regulations on individual
travellers seeking to enter the park.
Although this can be a deterrent for some, permits are easily obtainable if you do some
planning. And, while you may have to sacrifice a bit of spontaneity to gain admittance to
the park, the enigmatic Skeleton Coast really does live up to all the hype.
The zone south of the Hoanib River is open to individual travellers, but you need a per-
mit, which costs N$80 per person and N$10 per vehicle per day. These are available
through the NWR office in Windhoek. Accommodation is available only at Terrace Bay
and Torra Bay (the latter is open only in December and January), either of which must be
booked at NWR concurrently with your permit. To stay in either camp, you must pass the
Ugabmund entrance before 3pm and/or Springbokwater before 5pm.
No day visits to the park are allowed, but you can obtain a transit permit to pass
between Ugabmund and Springbokwater, which can be purchased at the gates. To transit
the park, you must pass the entry gate before 1pm and exit through the other gate before
3pm the same day. Note that transit permits aren't valid for Torra Bay or Terrace Bay.
SKELETONS ON THE COAST
Despite prominent images of rusting ships embedded in the hostile sands of the Skeleton Coast, the most famous
shipwrecks have long since disappeared. The harsh winds and dense fog that roll off the South Atlantic are strong
forces of erosion, and today there are little more than traces of the countless ships that were swept ashore during
the height of the mercantile era. In addition, the few remaining vessels are often in remote and inaccessible loca-
tions.
One such example is the
Dunedin Star,
which was deliberately run aground in 1942 just south of the Angolan
border after hitting some offshore rocks. The ship was en route from Britain around the Cape of Good Hope to the
Middle East war zone, and was carrying more than 100 passengers, a military crew and cargo.
When a rescue ship arrived two days later, getting the castaways off the beach proved an impossible task. At
first, the rescuers attempted to haul the castaways onto their vessel by using a line through the surf. However, as
the surge grew stronger, the rescue vessel was swept onto the rocks and wrecked alongside the
Dunedin Star
.
Meanwhile, a rescue aircraft, which managed to land on the beach alongside the castaways, became bogged in the
sand. Eventually all the passengers were rescued, though they were evacuated with the help of an overland truck
convoy. The journey back to civilisation was two weeks of hard slog across 1000km of desert.
Further south on the Skeleton Coast - and nearly as difficult to reach - are several more intact wrecks. The
Eduard Bohlen
ran aground south of Walvis Bay in 1909 while carrying equipment to the diamond fields in the
far south. Over the past century the shoreline has changed so much that the ship now lies beached in a dune nearly
1km from the shore.
On picturesque Spencer Bay, 200km further south and just north of the abandoned mining town of Saddle Hill,
is the dramatic wreck of the
Otavi
. This cargo ship beached in 1945 following a strong storm, and is now dramat-
