Things to do
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Cape Cross
Diogo Cão landed on this headland in 1486 and raised a stone cross, later removed to Berlin, with replicas standing in its place today. The Cape fur seal colony below is among the largest on the coast, and the ammonia reaches a vehicle well before the animals come into view. A boardwalk keeps visitors off the sand.
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Cape Cross Lodge
Thatch and whitewash on the shore a short way from the seal reserve, and the only lodging of its kind between the town and the park gate. Rooms face the water, the noise of the colony carries down on the wind, and the restaurant is the last proper meal before the salt road runs north.
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Messum Crater
An eroded volcanic ring some twenty kilometres across lies inland on the gravel plains, part of the igneous province that also built the Etendeka. Welwitschias grow across the floor and stone circles left by earlier inhabitants sit among them. Travelling in two vehicles is the standard advice here, and there is no water.
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Zeila Wreck
A condemned fishing trawler broke its tow on the way to be scrapped and grounded on a reef just off the beach south of the town, where it has stayed since. Cormorants use the hull now. It sits close enough to the road to photograph from the gravel, which is rare on this coast.