Shipwreck Lodge

one of the most remote properties in Africa

Shipwreck Lodge is located in the Skeleton Coast North area of northwest Namibia.

This very comfortable and innovative property is centred on cosy public areas below an enormous dune sea and with distant views of the angry Atlantic Ocean.

The lodge has been designed to give a vague impression of the kind of shelters that shipwrecked sailors may have tried to build out of the wreckage of their vessels, although obviously the interiors have been made a good deal more comfortable.

Rooms

Guest accommodation at Shipwreck Lodge is in ten detached suites, each a little bit like a tipped boat. The best positioned are the low numbers at the far end, which are away from the vehicle turnaround.

Activities

Shipwreck Lodge provides the following guided activities …

• Vehicle safari
• Walking safari
• Bush meals

Skeleton Coast North inherently features in a relatively low proportion of trips. This place is too harsh and obscure for most people. It also demands a high commitment of time and money.

The usual stay duration is 3 nights in a single lodge or 4-8 nights on an overland expedition.

Seasonality

The climate on the Skeleton Coast is really quite remarkable and unlike any other on the continent, in that there is virtually no change in conditions year round.

Temperatures during the day average around 21C/70F in most months, possibly dropping by a couple of degrees during Aug-Nov. At night the low temperatures are around 13C/55F, possibly also dropping by a corresponding amount Jun-Sep.

There is virtually no rainfall in any month of the year, although we have seen some charts recording highs of around 5mm or 1/4″ in March. Most months are well under 1mm.

Dec-Apr : Windy season

The most significant seasonal variation are the Dec-Apr onshore winds, which can be relentless during what is the green season further inland. In reality, this tends to have little adverse effect on a trip, since it adds to the atmosphere, with bracing visits to the coast and cosy sheltered campsites tucked further inland.

The other seasonal factor is that the ephemeral rivers that feed down into this area are more likely to flood due to rainfall inland during the Jan-Mar season. Such floods can block the tracks that lead along the coast, but these events tend to be over almost as quickly as they start, at worst causing a delay of a couple of hours. The effects on wildlife movements are reasonably slight in this area.

May-Nov : Fog season

At this time of year, the onshore winds tend to be less strong, which can lead to heavy blankets of fog along the coastal strip, which almost always burn off through the morning to restore the usual searing sunshine. It is the moisture from these fogs that sustains so much of the specialist wildlife in the area.

There is also no great seasonal variation in visitor traffic into this area, which is consistently very low, close to zero in most parts. The only thing to watch out for is that you may need to book well ahead to secure rooms at Shipwreck Lodge during the main holiday season Jul-Sep. For overland expeditions it is always necessary to book well in advance as permits are so very limited.

Getting around

There are three main ways to get around Namibia and visit Skeleton Coast North …

Self-drive

The first option is to self-drive, which is reasonably safe and easy to do. The upside is that it is by far the lowest cost way to get around. The downside is that, for safety reasons, you are obliged to stick to a relatively limited network of main roads locations.

Whilst it is definitely not possible to self-drive inside the Skeleton Coast North area, there are ways to include it in a self-drive trip, by leaving your vehicle at a remote location and travelling on with a guide.

Flying safari

The second option is to travel around by light aircraft. This is both a great deal easier and enables you to access some wonderfully remote locations. The downside is that it’s much more expensive, as much as three times the price of self-drive.

It is possible to fly into the Skeleton Coast North area, landing at the airstrip at Mowe Bay and staying at the only permanent accommodation, Shipwreck Lodge.

Guided overland expedition

The third option is guided overland expedition, which enables you to really explore the truly wild and wonderful parts of the country. The downsides are that this can be quite an arduous way to travel and can become quite costly.

In this Skeleton Coast North area, these private guided overland expeditions are by far the best way to travel and the only way to truly explore the whole area.

Government permits for these expeditions are extremely limited and we usually sell them out at least a year in advance. No surprise really, as this is probably the most outrageously cool safari that we know.

Combinations

Many of the very best trips to Namibia combine two or three of these ways of travelling around.

best explored by serious overland expeditions