Namibia’s Skeleton Coast: ‘The Land God Made in Anger’

Posted by Mike Richard
Filed under: Namibia, Sidelines

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Namibia’s Skeleton Coast

Local bushmen call it, ‘The Land God Made in Anger.’

You could land on Namibia’s Skeleton Coast - but you couldn’t leave it. Sailors would be pushed ashore in heavy surf - sometimes in dense ocean fog, to boot - and beach themselves. The next morning, they would realize that they were surrounded, by nothing but a hundred miles of the world’s harshest desert.

One WWII cargo ship, the MV Dunedin Star, crash-landed in 1942 - as did every attempt at rescue. One rescue tug smashed on the rocks, drowning its crew. A bomber, dropping supplies to the survivors, crashed into the ocean. But those pilots actually made it ashore, even managing to join up with the survivors of the Star. The entire ragged convoy reached Namibia’s capital city, Windhoek, one month later.

These days, the Skeleton Coast is a national park. Over a thousand ships are still rusting in the dunes.

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This article was reprinted with permission of Cool Things In Random Places - a little refreshing randomness from around the globe.

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Vagabondish editor, Mike Richard, lives in Rhode Island - a spit of land in the northeastern U.S. He is a professional web designer and travel junkie with an unhealthy addiction to backpacking, camping, hiking and seeing the world. He enjoys knit hats, small, declarative sentences and speaking in the third person.



Share Your Thoughts

Ben
March 31st, 2008

Interesting. I hope someday, I’ll be able to photograph this coast.


Abigail
May 11th, 2008

Hello,
My name is Abigail Naslund, I am a 7th grader at Lincoln Community School in Accra Ghana. I am doing a research project about Skeleton Coast, and I need some extra information that I can’t find anywhere else. I just have a question about the local people and how it affects them, positivity or/and negatively, and any addition information that is important about Skeleton Coast. If you have time please e-mail me back at cool_dolphin95@hotmail.com

Thank You,
Abigail