Star dunes with up to five crests rise 300m into the air and rank among the biggest in the world; the dune valleys are marked by vast clay pans where the Tsauchab River gave up its fight to reach the sea more than 60,000 years ago.
Besides the dunes and pans of Sossusvlei and Sesriem Canyon, a sideshow of activities and sights has developed around the region and there are plenty of game lodges that provide additional desert-adapted activities. Plants and birds are the dominant life form in this dessicated realm and they support a tiny world of mammals, reptiles and insects that, in the absence of coastal fog, seldom wander far from the rivercourse and its pans.
The Skeleton Coast National Park is the northern stretch, north of Ugab River Gate and beyond Terrace Bay. A vast, brooding and impenetrable national park. Bleak too and one of the most inhospitable places in the world. Cold water and an expanse of dunes, this is the driest place in sub- Saharan Africa and the final resting place of more than a thousand rusting shipwrecks. The turbulent Benguela Current causes strong winds, shifting sandbanks and powerful undertows that have led to many a sailor's demise. It’s a true testament to the humbling power of nature's forces.
Explore what is left of shipwreck skeletons that met their fate on the treacherous Atlantic Coast by the ever changing sandbanks, heavy fog and torrent currents. Take a scenic flight over the endless dunes, old diamond mines, shipwrecks and along the deserted coastline. Visit one of the largest Cape fur seal colonies in the world at the Cape Cross Seal Reserve.
On the eastern edge of Etosha National Park, the park itself is bordered by numerous private reserves and access into the park is via the Von Lindequist Gate, named after Dr. Friedrich von Lindequist who proclaimed it a game reserve in March 1907. This side of the park is characterised by flat endless plains, tree-savanna type of vegetation and fantastic waterholes, where you could easily spot any of the prolific wildlife Etosha is known for. There's an abundance of wildlife here.
