Cold water of the Benguela Current collides with dry, warm, air of the Namib Desert and the resulting cold, dense fog extends out to the sea. The wind and currents combine to produce a force pushing inexorably towards shore. These conditions led seafarers to christen this seemingly inhospitable stretch of coastline the Skeleton Coast.
Source: SouthernFriedScience
One visitor to the Skeleton Coast described his impressions of a shipwreck: “Exploring the shoreline, I came to understand – it was not only shipwrecks that lined our beach, but also the bones of many a whale and seal.”
Source: SafariWise
Namibia has several thousand shipwrecks along its 976-mile (1579-kilometer) coastline. Roaring winds, strong ocean currents and fog are mostly responsible for their fate.
Many are completely destroyed by the sun and salty sea air, but a few are visible and can be seen up close.
Source: AfricanSafariCo.
A relatively modern fishing trawler, the Suiderkus ran aground near Möwe Bay on her maiden voyage despite a highly sophisticated navigational system. After a few months most of the ship had disintegrated but a large portion of the hull survived.
The hull is home to cormorants and it’s a popular spot for photographers.
It’s one of the most visible and relatively accessible wrecks along the coast.
Source: AfricanSafariCo.
The Dunedin Star left Liverpool carrying ammunition and supplies for Allied forces during World War II. On board were 21 passengers trying to escape war-torn London. The ship hit an underwater obstacle and was grounded 500 meters offshore, stranding passengers and crew on the Skeleton Coast.
Rescue efforts were doomed. A tugboat ran aground, and a plane sent to drop supplies for the survivors crashed into the sea. The tugboat and the warplane became added casualties to the many wrecks of the spooky Skeleton Coast and are both visible today, along with the Dunedin Star.
Source: AfricanSafariCo.
Although the entire coastline of Namibia was formerly called The Skeleton Coast, Nambia refers to it today as Skeleton Coast National Park, according to Namibia.org. The park stretches from the Kunene River in the north about 500 kilometers (310 miles) to the Ugab River in the south, offering protection to about a third of Namibia’s coastline.
Source: Namibian.org
This may be the best-known shipwreck in Namibia if not in the world, according to Africa Safari Co. That’s mainly because of where it is — the Eduard Bohlen appears to be grounded in mid-desert, about 500 meters (1640 feet) from the ocean.
This German cargo ship ran aground on its way to Cape Town from Swakopmund. Years later, the coastline changed and the desert began to encroach on the ocean. Once stranded in the ocean, the wreck slowly began what appeared to be a trek inland. It’s a favorite site for history fans and wreck enthusiasts.
Source: AfricanSafariCo.
Source: NYTimesblog
Source: OverseasAdventureTravel
Sailors have navigated around the coast of Africa for centuries, but many attempts at seafaring ended badly, leaving modern-day divers with hundreds of fascinating shipwrecks to explore. Here are just some of the best wreck dives in Africa.
The following wreck dive photos first appeared in AFKTravel.
The Numidia was a British freighter that wrecked in the Red Sea in 1901. It carried 97 crew members and over 7,000 tons of materials. It’s now located on a plateau of Big Brother Island that is accessible from 10 to 85 meters down, due to the ships long length. Over the last century, the shipwreck has been covered in soft corals and is a great place to spot sea creatures.
Located in the tropical waters of Mauritius, you’ll find a Japanese fishing boat that sunk in 1998. It’s quite large at almost 45 meters and easily navigable due to being located on a flat bottom. Because of the clear waters in the area, it’s pretty easy to see sea life such as eel, scorpion fish, dolphin and fantastic coral.
While it didn’t get there in an actual wreck, the SAS Pietermaritzburg was sunk by explosive charges off the Cape Peninsula to create an artificial reef. Before it was at the bottom of the ocean, it was used as a training vessel and a minesweeper. It’s a great place to go diving and explore colorful sea life. It’s also easy to get to — located less than a kilometer from Miller’s Point.
The SS Thistlegorm is one of the most popular dive sites for people visiting Sharm El Sheikh in the Red Sea. The ship exploded in 1941 and was found by Jacques Cousteau in the 1950s and then featured on the documentary series “The Silent World.” The dive is unusual due to the numerous motorcycles and cars found on the ship.
The SS Paraportiani is a 100 meter long vessel that sunk off the coast in just 20 meters of water. It’s one of the easier dives in Africa to access and is located just off the Panza Reef near the southern tip of Pemba Island. Divers can expect to find plenty of colorful starfish as well as tropical fish in the area.
For a stunning deep dive with artificial reefs, divers in the know often head to the Klipfontein off the coast of Mozambique. The 160 meter long ship was split in half after hitting a reef in the area in 1953 and hasn’t moved since.
The Salem Express took quite a toll when it sunk in 1991, killing 470 people on board. It was one of the worst shipwrecks in the history of the Red Sea. Today, you can still find remains of passenger’s stuff on board. Diving the site is considered somewhat controversial and you should always respect the remains of the dead.
The Paquita was a 460 ton German ship that sank near Knysna in 1903 and is now accessible to divers in the area. It’s located 16 meters below the surface where divers often have visibility of up to 10 meters. You’ll find plenty of sea life in the area, just be wary of the sharks.
The produce had a relatively short life and wrecked off the Aliwal Shoal in the 1970s. Rumor has it that the cargo was carrying molasses, though nobody knows if it actually slowed the ship down. The dive is one of the best in the area and is home to quite a bit of marine life, including giant brindle bass and blacktip shark.
The Umbria served in World War II and was secretly loaded with bombs, wine bottles and Fiat cars. After crossing through the Suez canal, it was found by the British and sent to the bottom of the sea. It’s now known as one of the best dives in the world and still has over 5,000 tons of bombs inside — be careful not to touch anything. Oh, and there are a few clown fish, snappers, and barracudas that like to call the site home, too.
Tourism has transformed the lives of thousands of Namibians and turned them into conservationists. Namibia has undergone a conservation revolution and in the process, generated jobs and income for rural residents through safari tourism. Empowered by their constitution, Namibians exchanged generations of poaching, wildlife conflict, and unsustainable land use for unparalleled levels of habitat protection, wildlife conservation and sustainable development. Central to Namibia’s conservation revolution is communal conservancies that give neighboring communities the right to oversee wildlife and natural resources on their communal land. Ground-breaking legislation in Namibia in the mid-’90s laid the foundation for this new approach to natural resource management and conservation. By forming conservancies, people in communal areas can manage and generate returns from natural resources. This supports environmental restoration. Wildlife populations have increased. As a result, economic benefits have grown for local people through tourism.
Here are 12 reasons Namibia is a world leader in joint-venture and community-based tourism.
Sources: Linking Tourism and Conservation, TourismUpdate, HuffingtonPost, CommunityConservationNamibia. NACSO.
Namibia’s communal conservancy program has become the most successful community-based natural resource management initiative on Earth. And there’s an acronym for that — CBNRM. Namibia has at least 82 registered communal conservancies, one community conservation association in a National Park, 15 concessions in National Parks or on other state land, 32 community forests, 66 community range-land management areas and three community fish reserves.
Source: Linking Tourism and Conservation
Namibia was the first African country to incorporate protection of the environment into its constitution. Today, almost half — about 46 percent — of Namibia’s surface area is under conservation management. This includes national parks and game reserves (19 percent), communal conservancies and other community conservation (20 percent), as well as commercial conservancies, private nature reserves and tourism concessions (7 percent). Another 3 percent of Namibia is restricted to diamond mining in the Southwest.
Source: Linking Tourism and Conservation
Wildlife has become valuable and poaching is no longer an option, thanks to Namibia’s conservancy movement, HuffPost reports. The result? Wildlife has recovered. Since 1995, Namibia’s desert-adapted lion population quadrupled, the elephant population more than doubled and the endangered black rhino populations are healthy enough to be relocated out of national parks and into communal conservancies.
Today, wildlife is the basis of a new rural economy that is creating jobs and providing direct benefits to communities that have chosen to live in harmony with it.
Source: HuffingtonPost.
Despite the impression of unlimited space, Namibia is an arid environment with low carrying capacity for both humans and wildlife. About 20 percent of the total area is National Parks and restricted areas, 40 percent is communal area and 40 percent of the land is privately owned. Today, much of the wildlife lives outside protected areas on private farmland and communal land. These areas, therefore, play a crucial role in the sustainable management and conservation of the country’s wildlife.
Source: Linking Tourism and Conservation
The Nambwa Camp on the Kwando River in the Zambezi region is a popular camp for travelers. Although the camp is located inside the Bwabwata National Park, it is run almost entirely by the Mayuni Conservancy.
Hidden between the trees above the campsite is Nambwa Lodge, a section of secluded luxury tents built on a wooden platforms. It is run in a joint venture with the conservancy and African Monarch, a Namibian company that provides training and recruitment for field guides and the hospitality industries.
Guests have king-sized beds, bubble baths, and food prepared by staff hired from the conservancy. The main attraction is 20,000 elephants moving through the park to and from Botswana (hopefully not all at the same time), according to Steve Felton, spokesman for Namibian Association of Community Based Natural Resource Management (NACSO) and World Wildlife Fund Namibia.
Source: TourismUpdate
Growing wildlife populations and safari tourism in Namibia create new challenges. With much healthier game numbers come more frequent human-wildlife conflict — such as lions eating cattle and elephants trampling crops. Compensation mechanisms for farmers are disputed. Historically, any animal causing damage would be killed, but thanks to conservancy-tourism partnerships, these same farmers and herders understand the benefits of keeping animals alive for the good of their communities.
To live with wildlife means striving for balanced land use and a healthy environment. Game does not need to be eradicated from a landscape when it threatens crops or livestock, according to LTC. Financial returns from wildlife can exceed its costs. Various types of tourism exist in Namibia such as photo safaris, excursions, adventure tours, and research expeditions. Even the controversial practice of trophy hunting is considered by some as an important conservation tool in Namibia.
Source: HuffingtonPost, Linking Tourism and Conservation
In Namibia’s past when farmers had few rights to use wildlife, wild animals were seen as a threat to livestock, crops and infrastructure, and community safety. Conservation management was limited to protected areas. In 1967 Namibia’s farmers were given commercial rights over wildlife and indigenous plants. The implementation of these rights resulted in wildlife being used and valued (“What pays that stays”) by the private sector. Later, people in communal areas received the same rights much (1996-2001) when policies were adopted to promote community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). Since then the wildlife sector was also driven into a rapid growth on communal land.
Source: Linking Tourism and Conservation
Community-based tourism in Namibia is based on the joint-venture principle: private sector tourism operators partner with communal conservancies to build and run lodges, campsites and tours on sustainable principles. High quality lodges and activities bring income to conservancies which protect wildlife and the environment.
With the help of local and international NGOs, the communal conservancies are forging innovative joint-venture partnerships with tourism investors and management companies, creating high-quality tourism lodges and experiences that have direct financial benefits to the conservancies and individual communities. These joint ventures range from simple land-lease payments to fully community-owned lodges. In addition to jobs, revenue earned as part of these ventures is paid to a community fund that supports local projects such as education, water access and health care.
Source: HuffingtonPost.
While there’s plenty of online information about the meaning of ≠Khoadi-//Hôas — it’s named after the Khoekhoegowab phrase for “elephant’s corner” — its pronounciation is a mystery, at least to AFKInsider.
What is undisputed is the fact that the conservancy’s Grootberg Lodge has spectacular views down the Klip River Valley and is popular with tourists, according to TourismUpdate.
Grootberg Lodge is located between the panoramic landscapes of Kunene north and south on the Grootberg Pass.
Rhino tracking is the main attraction with experienced guides and trackers. Guests will likely see elephants, oryx, kudu, giraffe, and lots of birds.
Established in 1998, ≠Khoadi-//Hôas Conservancy benefits more than 3,000 residents with programs that take advantage of the region’s extraordinary natural beauty and wildlife.
Source: TourismUpdate, NACSO.org
In addition to community-based tourism, a large number of commercial farmers established free-hold conservancies and tourism enterprises on private lands. In contrast to community-based tourism, commercial conservancies are not supported by the government. They must function self-sufficiently from Day 1. Two well established examples are the N/a’an ku sê Foundation and NamibRand Nature Reserve.
Source: Linking Tourism and Conservation
Thanks to the communal conservancy system, communities across Namibia have made the commitment, “We will live with wildlife.” It’s not a sacrifice but a choice that ensures prosperity for the community and the country as a whole.
Source: HuffingtonPost.
Wilderness Safaris operates the Doro !Nawas Camp in conjunction with the community. Accommodation in the form of 16 units all designed to blend into the hillside.
The Doro !Nawas Conservancy is a good base to explore Twyfelfontein, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with magnificent rock art and engravings, a petrified forest and incredible geological formations, according to TourismUpdate.
Twyfelfontein is home to the Living Museum of the Damara, the first traditional Damara project in Namibia. “Visitors have the unique opportunity to get to know the fascinating traditional culture of the Damara, thus contributing to the preservation of the culture as well as to regular income for the Damara community that built the museum,” said Victoria Short, marketing manager of Springbok Atlas.
Despite the region’s arid habitat, wildlife — especially desert-adapted elephant — are a big attraction in the Doro !Nawas Conservancy.
Source: TourismUpdate, NACSO.org
More Namibian conservancies are expected to become self-sufficient. A substantial number of conservancies that once depended to some degree on grant aid will cover their operational costs from their income in the future.
Community-based conservation may grow to a larger number of conservancies up to 90 or 100. This will help grow tourism in Namibia.
Although Namibia’s entire coastline is protected through a national parks network, marine biodiversity is essentially unprotected. The status of two marine reserves, which cover less than 1 percent of Namibia’s marine environment, needs clarification and augmentation with new Marine Protected Areas.
Source: Linking Tourism and Conservation
