Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Terrace Bay Resort $$$
(campsite per person N$125, s/d N$800/1600, 4-10-person beach chalets per person
N$700)
Open year-round, this resort is a luxurious alternative to camping at Torra Bay.
Around the camp you may spot black-backed jackals or brown hyenas, and the scenery of
sparse coastal vegetation and lonely dunes is the Skeleton Coast at its finest. The site has a
restaurant, a shop and a petrol station. Terrace Bay is located 49km north of Torra Bay.
CHALETS
Getting There & Away
The Skeleton Coast Park is accessed via the salt road from Swakopmund, which ends
70km north of Terrace Bay. The park is also accessible via the C39 gravel road which runs
between Khorixas and Torra Bay. Note that motorcycles are not permitted in the Skeleton
Coast Park. Hitchhikers may be discouraged by the bleak landscape, cold sea winds, fog,
sandstorms and sparse traffic.
SKELETON COAST WILDERNESS AREA
The Skeleton Coast Wilderness Area, stretching between the Hoanib and Kunene Rivers,
makes up the northern third of the Skeleton Coast and is a part of the Skeleton Coast Park.
This section of coastline is among the most remote and inaccessible areas in Namibia,
though it's here in the wilderness that you can truly live out your Skeleton Coast fantasies.
Since the entire area is a private concession, you're going to have to part with some seri-
ous cash to visit. Up until late 2012, the sole accommodation here was at the Skeleton
Coast Wilderness Camp, which was accessible only by charter flight. That camp was
closed after being gutted by a fire, but it's rumoured that a new luxury operation, the
Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp, will open for business in the region in early to mid-2013.
History
In the early 1960s, Windhoek lawyer Louw Schoemann began bringing business clients to
the region, and became involved in a consortium to construct a harbour at Möwe Bay, at
the southern end of the present-day Skeleton Coast Wilderness Area. In 1969, however,
the South African government dropped the project, and in 1971 it declared the region a
protected reserve. Five years later, when the government decided to permit limited tour-
ism, the concession was put up for bid, and Schoemann's was the only tender.
For the next 18 years, his company led small group tours and practised ecotourism long
before it became a buzz word. Louw Schoemann passed away in 1993, but his sons have
since carried on the business.
