Namibia is a little-known country in the southern part of Africa. It is a country whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It is a fascinating country and definitely qualifies as one of the countries you should visit at least once in your lifetime. Maybe all of you have heard the name of Skelton Coast but if not, then we will talk about it today. The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean coast of Namibia and south of Angola from the Kunene River south to the Swakop River. The Skeleton Coast is the world’s biggest grave site for sailors and ships. 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. Bushman may refer to San people (The San people are members of various Khoisan-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer people representing the first nation of Southern Africa, whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa) in Southern Africa. Although the name "Skeleton Coast" is sometimes used to describe the entire Namib Desert coast. The area's name derives from the whale and seal bones that once littered the shore from the whaling industry, although in modern times the coast harbours the skeletal remains of the shipwrecks caught by offshore rocks and fog. More than a thousand such vessels of various sizes litter the coast, notably the Eduard Bohlen, Benguela Eagle, Otavi, Dunedin Star and Tong Taw. Namibia has declared the 16,000 square kilometres Skeleton Coast National Park over much of the area, from the Ugab River to the Kunene. The northern half of the park is a designated wilderness area. Notable features are the clay castles of the Hoarisib, the Agate Mountain salt pans and the large seal colony at Cape Fria.
On the coast the upwelling (upwelling is an oceanographic phenomenon that involves wind-driven motion of dense, cooler, and usually nutrient-rich water towards the ocean surface, replacing the warmer, usually nutrient-depleted surface water) of the cold Benguela current (The Benguela Current is the broad, northward flowing ocean current that forms the eastern portion of the South Atlantic Ocean gyre) gives rise to dense ocean fogs for much of the year. The winds blow from land to sea, rainfall rarely exceeds 10 millimetres annually and the climate is highly inhospitable. There is a constant, heavy surf on the beaches. The name Skeleton Coast was coined by John Henry Marsh as the title for the book. The true story of the wrecking in 1942 of the British refrigerated cargo liner Dunedin Star and the eventual rescue of all her 106 passengers and crew, at the cost of a tug, an SAAF aircraft and the lives of two rescuers. Since the book was first published in 1944 it has become so well known that the coast is now generally referred to as Skeleton Coast. The coast has been the subject of a number of wildlife documentaries. There is a 1965 National Geographic documentary "Survivors Of The Skeleton Coast". Many of the plant and insect species of the sand dune systems depend on the thick sea fogs which engulf the coast for their moisture and windblown detritus from the interior as food. The riverbeds further inland are home to baboons, giraffes, lions, black rhinoceros and springbok. The black rhinoceros population was the main reason why the CBBC show Serious Desert was filmed in the region.
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| Skeleton Coast - Wrecked Ship |
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| Skeleton Coast - Wrecked Ship |
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