Torra Bay is a patch of gravel at the edge of the cold Atlantic, and it is one of the loneliest places a motorcyclist is likely to go. On the Skeleton Coast of northern Namibia, the Namib desert runs straight into the sea, and the shore is a line of grey waves, yellow dunes and a horizon that looks as if it has nothing behind it. The cold Benguela current, running up from the south, chills the air above it, and fog rolls in from the water most mornings, so the desert here is damp, cool and strangely quiet.
The campsite at Torra Bay is open only for a few weeks around the Christmas holidays, when Namibian families come to fish for kob and sleep in tents on the sand, and for the rest of the year it is closed. Entry to the Skeleton Coast National Park requires a permit, and you pass through a gate along the road, so plan ahead. The park is named for the whale bones and ship wrecks along the shore, where sailors were washed up, and the hulks of rusted vessels still lie on the beach in places.
The road, the C34, is a salt road, a hard-packed surface made from gravel and salt crust, which is smooth when dry and slick when damp with fog. It runs north from Swakopmund and Henties Bay, with the sea on one side and bare dunes or gravel plains on the other, and the visibility can drop in an instant. The riding is simple but demands attention, because of sand drifts, soft patches and the risk of a long fall. Carry tools, spare tubes, a tyre pump and plenty of water, and tell someone your plan.
There are no dependable services at Torra Bay. Fuel is available at Henties Bay, which is the last reliable place, and at Terrace Bay, farther north, but not everywhere or at all times, so carry extra if you can. Cape fur seals breed on the rocks, and jackals and hyenas patrol the beaches, while the dunes hold lizards and beetles that drink from the fog. Wind is constant and can blow sand across the road. In the evening, the sunset over the sea is huge, and the stars at night are among the best in the world. The silence is complete, which is both the beauty and the danger of the place.