The Skeleton Coast is so named for all the ghostly shipwrecks that are beached on these remote and inaccessible white shores. This 2 million hectare park is one of the most inhospitable and least visited places on earth - a challenge for those on a Namibia safari. To get there by road entails a tough drive through the rugged mountains of Damaraland. Only 4 wheel drive vehicles dare enter for fear of getting stuck in the soft sand and running out of fresh water, with a fly-in safari the only alternative.

The attraction for visitors is its untouched and mysterious barren beauty, swept by cold sea breezes and often enveloped in a dense fog. The windswept dunes and flat plains give way in places to rugged canyons with walls of richly coloured volcanic rock and extensive mountain ranges. You would not expect to find elephants here, but they have become specially adapted to their desert home and have even been known to surf down sand dunes.