The Skeleton Coast

Namibia's Route C39 from Palmwag and Springbokwasser west across the Namib to the coast, visible at left in the picture, is a dirt road. The land it crosses is flat, featureless, stony desert except where it is broken by occasional hills. It appears to be totally barren of all life, which is unsurprising as this is one of the driest places on our planet.

The C39 meets the C34 at this junction. Turn right to Torra Bay and, several score kilometres beyond that settlement, the road runs out. Turn left and the C34 takes you to Swakopmund, Namibia's second city. The sign is very firm that you should make one of those choices: going straight on....

....is not an option as these beaches used to be a major source of alluvial diamonds. Most of the deposits, even those on the sea floor off the coast, have been worked out, and one sometimes wonders whether it isn't the owners of the diamond fields who put up these notices but the local tourist board, to add atmosphere to what some might consider a long, boring drive.

Other than the narrow shingle beach, there is almost no acknowledgement that this is a coastline. The desert seems to plunge, uninterrupted, beneath the waves. Yet this indescribably barren, featureless coast has an awesome beauty.

It is the Skeleton Coast, famous for the shipwrecks which are scattered along its length. They are there because of the swirling crosscurrents, the heavy Atlantic swells, the constantly moving sandbanks, the dense fogs caused by warm, moist air flowing in across the icy Benguela Current; and the mistakes men make.

The Zeila, a large stern trawler, is typical of these wrecks: she foundered in 2008 while being towed to Bombay for scrap. There are more wrecks here.