Skeleton Coast Road · part 2

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Cape Cross

   You smell Cape Cross before you see it. A cold wind off the Atlantic carries a thick, rank, fishy odour across the coastal desert of Namibia, and then the beach appears, packed with brown bodies, and the noise arrives: a continual barking, bleating and groaning from tens of thousands of Cape fur seals. The colony is one of the largest on the African coast, and in the pupping season, around November and December, the rocks and shingle are crowded with newborns. Black-backed jackals patrol the edges, hoping for a weak pup, and the Benguela current, cold and rich in fish, is the reason for the whole noisy business.

   Read the complete Cape Cross write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Cape Cross is where the day begins. Next is Ugab.

2. 2. Ugab Gate

   The Ugab is a river that rarely runs, and its dry bed is the reason there is a gate here at all. On the C34, the gravel and salt road that runs along the Namibian coast, the Ugab River Gate marks a southern entrance to the Skeleton Coast National Park, a long, narrow strip of desert, fog and shipwreck that stretches north toward Angola. The name comes from the whale and seal bones that once littered the beach, and from the ships that ran onto the rocks in the thick fog caused by the cold Benguela current meeting hot desert air. The Portuguese sailors called it the Sands of Hell, and local people called it the land God made in anger.

   Read the complete Ugab Gate write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ugab comes up about 88 km into the recorded legs. Next is Torra Bay.

3. 3. Torra Bay

   Torra Bay is a name on a map, a dot on the Skeleton Coast of Namibia, and a place you need a plan to reach. It lies on the stretch of Atlantic shore where the cold Benguela Current meets the desert, and the sea's chill produces thick fog that rolls in most mornings and burns away by noon, giving the coast an eerie, silvery look. Sailors named it the Skeleton Coast for the shipwrecks and the bones of whales and seals scattered on the sand, and in the early days, ships that ran aground rarely saw rescue.

   Read the complete Torra Bay write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 174 km.