Skeleton Coast

The Skeleton Coast earned its name from the whale and seal bones that once littered its beaches, supplemented over centuries by the rusting hulks of ships that foundered in the treacherous fog and currents of Namibia's Atlantic seaboard. The Portuguese sailors who first mapped these waters called it "the Gates of Hell" — a coast so desolate that shipwreck survivors faced an equally deadly journey through the Namib Desert.

Today, the Skeleton Coast remains one of the most hauntingly beautiful stretches of coastline on Earth. The Cape Cross seal colony, home to over 250,000 Cape fur seals, is an assault on the senses — the noise, smell, and sheer density of animals is overwhelming and unforgettable. Further north, the coast grows increasingly remote and desolate, with desert-adapted lions, brown hyenas, and jackals eking out an existence at the interface of desert and ocean.