When you drive from Khorixas towards the coast, you have to drive through the Skeleton Coast Park. This is the northern part of the Namib Naukluft Park, the world oldest desert.
Skeleton Coast, a strange name. It is called that way
because there are a lot of skeletons of shipwrecks and of human
beings. Because of the rough sea, a lot of ships ran ashore. The
shipwrecked man who reached the shore thought that they were
saved. Unfortunately they landed on one of the driest places on
earth with the nearest village over 200 km away. They all died of
thirst.
If you want to drive in the desert you have to register and buy a permit like in every national park. When you leave the park you must write out. It is obliged to take with you per person at least 1,5 liter of water and food for one day. Your car can break down and there is no roadservice in the desert.... Lucky a few cars pass everyday.
The park stretches from north to south a few hundred km
and 50 km from east to west. It is very dry and nothing will grow
here. Sometimes you see a Welwitschia. The southern part is open
to the public while the northern part is unspoiled wilderness and
visitors are not allowed there. In the northern part live some
desert elephants, a very very rare and threatend species.
We didn't see a lot of shipwrecks because they have been
found in the north mainly. Besides of that we ran out of time:
580 km in one day, 11 hours of light, and the gravel roads were
sometimes in very bad condition.
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