Ninety seconds on Skeleton Coast National Park
You follow one road past wrecks, lichen plains and the dry Ugab and Huab river beds, where almost all the wildlife lives. A transit permit covers it in a day, but not Torra Bay or Terrace Bay.
The road north from the southern gate soon passes its first wreck, the bare ribs of the South West Seal in the surf. Further on, an old oil rig lies on its side by the shore, with no sign and nowhere obvious to pull off. Stay off the rig, because the metal is rusted through.
Stop on the gravel plains and walk a few paces: the orange and green flecks on the stones are lichens. A tyre track across them lasts for decades, so keep your wheels on the road, and put back any stone you lift the way you found it.
Fuel inside the park is sold only at the camps, which a transit permit does not cover. Fill up in Henties Bay before you enter from the south, or at Palmwag on the road east of Springbokwasser, which also has a tyre shop.
Terrace Bay, and further afield
The public road up the Skeleton Coast ends at a barrier just north of this camp, and nothing beyond it is open to self-drive. Low buildings…
A veterinary cordon fence crosses the road at this point, and past it lies a concession of several thousand square kilometres held for…
Administrative capital of the Kunene, where Himba, Herero and Zemba come in to trade and where the tar road gives out. It is a working town…