Skeleton Coast features 500 shipwrecks, lions roaming the beaches and 11 species of sharks – World News

The area in Namibia gets its eerie name from the countless animal bones scattered along the coast and the hundreds of shipwrecks left there over hundreds of years

It has 500 shipwrecks, lions roaming the beaches and 11 species of sharks.

But the sand dunes behind the coast are natural and apart from the shipwrecks, Namibia’s 1,570 kilometers of coastline offer something different for visitors.

The Skeleton Coast defies everything you thought Africa should look like.

Civilization is almost “nonexistent” and CNN Travel describes it as the mythical “end of the earth”.

Its range includes the German colonial city Swakopmund and the Angolan border, but the guidebook says its coastline is “uninhabited and utterly untamed”.

It gets its name from the animal bones and the hundreds of wrecked ships left there over hundreds of years.

But if wildlife is what you think Africa is, you can spot lions, hyenas and other predators scouring the shore for food from the sea.

Other giants, including elephants, are occasionally seen cruising the surf, which is home to 11 species of sharks.

Humans are few, but leopard, cheetah and caracal, giraffe, gemsbok (oryx) and springbok can be seen along with neon pink flamingos and thousands of Cape fur seals.

Surfers delight in the waves while others enjoy pristine sand dunes where no one else has beachcombed and you are the only steps in the sand.

Visitors can hop aboard an airplane for a spectacular aerial view.

“Flying the coast is insane,” says Jan Friede, longtime ranger at Skeleton Coast National Park and now bush pilot for Safaris with African profiles.

“You shouldn’t swim too far out,” warns a local.

“The current will take you 200 kilometers out.”

But this is heaven for surfers and will see brave boarders seeking endless summer waves.

Based in Swakopmund, element tab offers surf safaris on the Skeleton Coast as well as surf lessons and even competitions.

Based in Swakopmund, element tab offers surf safaris on the Skeleton Coast as well as surf lessons and even competitions.

“Surfing this energetic coast, one of the least populated in the world, always involves sharing waves with marine mammals,” says longboarder Rod Braby, former head of the Namibian Surfing Association.

“Respect the locals (cattle seals and dolphins) and you’ll be included in the line-ups of the best waves on the Skeleton Coast.

“Marine mammals know the waves much better than we do.”

Sea Ace fishing adventures in Henties Bay offers a huge attraction to expeditions along the coast with wrecks.

Around 500 ships are scattered by wooden Portuguese galleons and steel-hulled ships.

They are part of the unexpected coastline that most people would not believe would encounter on the African continent.

The Skeleton Coast is not without threats, including the possible development of an industrial port in Angra Fria, commercial overfishing, poaching and mineral exploitation

But given its extreme geography and harsh environmental conditions, Namibia’s forbidding coastline will likely remain at ‘the end of the world’ for some time to come.