Skeleton Coast

Beyond the mountains is the coast which is all sandy desert and flat. The wind howls across the sand whipping up dust. It collects in any hollow or behind any rock. It stings the skin. Despite being in the tropics it is cold here. You know when you are near the coast as the temperature drops markedly.

Offshore is the cold Benguela Current which flows north from the Antarctic. It is rich in minerals and great for fishing but the cold current makes to air cold and it is blown inland. Sometimes the cold moist air hits the hot air inland and forms thick fog.

 Dust collecting behind a rock.

 It is called the Skeleton Coast as there are many shipwrecks along the coast. If you are ship wrecked here and make it safely ashore there is nothing but sand for hundreds of kilometres. This is the wreck of an oil rig.

 Part of the rusting superstructure.

 The central section of the rig.

 The winding gear at the top of the derrick which has collapsed.

 A metal panel which is rusting away in a pretty pattern.

 Another wreck, this one of the whaler 'Eagle'. It was a wooden ship and most of it has washed away except for some metal of the boilers.

 And the steel clad wooden keel.

 Another part of the keel.

 And not all of the wrecks are old and ships still get washed ashore. On the beach was helicopter and support vehicle.

 Offshore was a grounded vessel (white one) with a tug standing by (the darker ship to the right).

 The grounded ship. The helicopter was there to ferry engineers and equipment out to the stricken ship. It was leaking oil as a result of the grounding and the oil tank had to be drained for the damage to be repaired by welding and the split oil cleaned up. It was carrying frozen tuna but needed the fuel to run the generators to keep the tuna frozen.

 The tug was standing by ready to help pull the ship off the sand on the next high tide once the oil tank was repaired

 And just along the coast was another trawler that had grounded although this one was grounded and abandoned in 2008.