Skeleton Coast: an evocative name for one of the most hostile stretches of land found anywhere on earth. Cape Cross forms part of the frontline in the struggle between the icy South Atlantic Ocean and the torrid Namib Desert. As treacherous as it may have been for mankind, this rocky shoreline represents the breeding ground for largest colony of fur seals of Southern Africa. The area can hardly be described as the most romantic (let alone agreeable) sight for a great moment in the annals of discovery, yet, in this malevolent setting new masters of the sea and technology stepped ashore some six years before Columbus beheld the islands of the new world. They, the Portuguese, now trod where no white man had ever walked before, and erected a cross (padrao) in their epic moment of triumph, heralding Southern Africa’s encounter with a new and powerful civilization. (The original padrao stands in the Berlin museum but you can view an exact replica at the precise location of the beacon)