Skeleton Coast National Park is in Kunene (map). Its attractions include a shipwreck at the South West Seal viewpoint, Huab Lagoon Bird Watching (map) and the collapsed oil drilling rig.
Skeleton Coast National Park has its southern boundary at the Ugab river and stretches northward to the Namibian border with Angola. The further north you get the more desolate the area becomes.
The most common risks posed to anyone travelling to this national park are exposure, the heat, and isolation. Always make sure that you are dressed appropriately, and have put on enough sunscreen on to last you for as long as you are in the park.
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Namibia’s Skeleton Coast continues to be a synonym for the horrors a sailor could face when his ship sank. Sharp rocks just underneath the water surface and thick fog during dusk and dawn along the entire coast posed a danger to ships, and when a shipwrecked crew did make it to land, they faced a belt of almost 100 km of desert, without any water or food sources and bare of any human settlement.
All along the coast are the bodies of ships and there are many stories of sailors dying or only escaping the desert by accident.
The southern third of the park can be explored independently, but the area north of Terrace Bay is restricted and may only be visited with a certified tour guide that holds the relevant concession. Expect to pay the guide around N$1,000 per day for the privilege, even if they are just a passenger in your car.
There are two entry gates to the park, one at the southern border of the park at the Ugab River mouth and the other on the eastern border at Springbokwasser.
The main coastal road C34 starts at Swakopmund and follows the coast north up to the Ugab River mouth.
An alternative route is to drive west from Khorixas on the C39, and then enter the park on the D3245.
BUS > Intercape
RAIL > The national railway company of Namibia, TransNamib, operates trains (and buses) to destinations all over Namibia. The Desert Express is a luxury tourist train that traverses Namibia regularly, taking tourists to such destinations as Walvis Bay, Swakopmund and Etosha National Park.
AIRPORTS > Hosea Kutako International Airport, located 45 minutes east of Windhoek, is the main entry point for air traffic.
WATERWAYS > –