SKELETON COAST PARK

For those who know, and even those who do not know Namibia, one of the most alluring aspects of the County is the emptiness, solitude and the enigma of the Skeleton Coast, a vast expanse of desert terrain, that is being preserved as a total wilderness area.

Terrace Bay, is the furthest north you are allowed to travel along the Skelton Coast Park, and even then you can only go there if you have pre-booked accommodation, which is checked by the park rangers at the Skelton Coast Park entrance at Ugab Border Gate approximately 130 miles north of Walvis Bay.

 

 

A fitting symbol, to make you realise just what you are entering into.

We were invited on an ‘invitation only’ research trip instigated by our good friend Dr. Hannes Holtzhausen, head of the Namibian Shark Research Project, up into the Skeleton Coast Park, this took us into the ‘restricted zone’, a place of near zero human access that only government bodies can gain very limited access. The area of interest was the border with southern Angola at the Kunune River, Bosluisbaai, a place suggested to be the breeding ground of the ‘Bronzies’, and the location where Hannes had on a previous short trip tagged a couple of sharks with the latest in satellite tags. This page is designed to show the absolute wilderness and how 12 poeple who did not know each other before they met, became firm friends. There is no room for egos when your party has to be self sufficient and reliant on your fellow man.

Preparations

We were going to be in the Restricted Zone for 5 days, and food and supplies were required for 12 people. Neels and Megan Dryer volunteered to do the catering and Jeri and I having nothing to do volunteered to do the shopping. 20kg potatoes for chips, net of oranges, fresh and dried fruit, various vegtables, flour for bread, beer (for the bread and to drink), meat, chicken, water, tea. coffee, milk, second spare tyre, fuel, etc, all this plus our camping, fishing equipment, fire wood and clothes had then to be packed into the Landrover. Every single item that we might need on the trip had to be taken, along with spares - anything missed from packing would not be available to us.

 

 

 

 

The trip consisted of 8 top level local anglers, a couple of support staff and ourselves, though only Jeri was targeting ‘Bronzies’. This type of trip into the total wilderness of the Skeleton Coast had to be totally self supporting, as there is really absolutely nothing in the region for hundreds of miles. This was borne out by the tale of the ‘wreck of the Dunedin Star’ in 1944, a British supply vessel that ran aground on a near shore reef, some 700km north of the then British port of Walvis Bay. It took over 5 months, with the loss of an ocean going tug and a supply plane before the survivors were rescued by land convoy. Where we were to travel had only first been achieved by road vehicle 50 years ago, in 1954.

The heavy duty logistics of fuel, water and other essentials had been planned by Neels and Megan, and co-ordinated with the others on the trip. Neels and Megan run ‘Mola Mola’ one of the main angling tour companies in Namibia, as well as a thriving marine safari business in Walvis Bay, and had been one of the original contacts in helping establish the shark tagging project in Namibia. The day finally came when 4 vehicles and crews were assembled in the early hours in Hentis Bay, and the relatively luxury drive up the salt road through the desert to Terrace Bay and the last point of ‘civilisation’; and the last point for fuel and water. Here large tanks in one of the Land Cruisers were filled with spare fuel and water, and we took a brief break before starting into the ‘restricted zone’ proper.

For those not familiar with the 1500 miles of Namibian coastline, it is basically where the desert meets the Atlantic Ocean, though the desert is not just miles of sand, but hills, mountains, dune fields and stoney plains; but all with very, very limited naturally occurring water. About half way up this mainly north-south coastline lie the two towns of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, and a little further north is Hentis Bay; north of that – very little else until the Kunune River, at the northern limit of the ‘restricted zone’. Well to the south of Walvis Bay, lies Luderitz, the other port on the Skeleton Coast, with nothing between the two ports other than desert terrain.

 

Our journey through the restricted zone took the rest of the first day, and nearly all of the following day, following a route that took us to the east of the coastal escarpment and behind the coastal dune fields; this route was determined by tide times, as we would otherwise have been forced by the incoming tides against very soft coastal sands, and near liquid salt pans. The first night we camped in the open air, in a dried water hole some 600km north of Walvis Bay, just 300km short of our final destination.

 

Neels and Megan were on their 3rd trip into the ‘restricted zone’, and were equally amazed by the sheer beauty of the wilderness landscape and wildlife. For there were areas of sparse grasses and plants, which supported a surprising amount of largish animals – Oryx, Ostrich, Springbok and others.

 

 

The second day travelling saw us traverse the escarpment back onto the coastal plain, and down to the beach, here we spent a few hours waiting for the tide to peak and start to ebb for the final rush up to Bosluisbaai. The stop was planned, as much as such things can be, to use the time to catch our evening meal, fish for what would affectionately become known as ‘Kunune Fish & Chips’. It seemed a little presumptuous to set out our planned meals around the certainty of catching enough fish for 12 people for a couple of meals; but we were soon pleasantly surprised.

 

 

Fishing mainly large baits in the rolling Atlantic surf at probably no more than 70 metres, we all hooked up with Kob up to 15kg; certainly enough to feed this adventurous party. The fact that after nearly 2 days of travelling, and having fishing rods to hand, made the party keen to get on the ‘road’, and get into the sharks. We spent the rest of the day travelling at relatively high speed up the hard sands of the beach to reach our destination for late afternoon. Everybody then set about establishing camp, with even the luxury of a shower tent; the spirit of camaraderie extended to all tasks and camp duties.

 

 

After dinner cooked on open fires, and the fish and chips consumed with relish; all retired early in preparation for our assault on the ‘Bronzies’. Up early the next day, and straight down the beach after coffee, the first order of the day was to catch the ‘bait’. It is often wondered in UK angling circles – why Smooth Hounds have such a tremendous turn of speed, when the feed on such sedate species like crabs, prawns and cuttlefish? Well, we found the answer, our same species of Smooth Hounds are one of the prime menu components of Copper sharks, and need every ounce of speed to evade getting eaten! We caught a number of Smooth Hounds, some of which would have surpassed the UK boat and shore records, and all good fun on lighter beach tackle; but that was just the bait! Out came the heavier surf casting rods, and huge sections of liver and gills were armed with twin 9/0 hooks to short steel traces, all cast well out into the surf with 6 & 8oz gripper leads. You have to admire these guys, and their ability to cast seriously heavy baits well, and that was just the start. The remnants of the Smooth hounds were used for ‘rubby dubby’, but retained in whole form just anchored in the backwash on a rope and a sand spike – ‘nothing is wasted in Africa’.

The rubby dubby soon worked its charms of providing a scent trail to our section of the beach, and a good number of large ‘Spotted Gully Sharks’ were landed, these are visually similar to Bull Huss in the UK, but there the similarity ends, as the also feature on the diet of Copper sharks, and have a speed and stamina that exceeds even the biggest Tope. The take and strike of the ‘Spotties’ is similar to that of the ‘Bronzies’, but they lack the size and speed of the local apex predator, that said, catching 40kg sharks of the beach is not to be sneered at.

Previous trips to this area, though there had only been a couple had seen some very serious results, with 8-10 anglers catching anything up to 250 ‘Bronzies’ in 3 days, with each averaging a 1 hour fight time – just over 8 ‘Bronzies’ per day, per angler – hence the need for a couple of assistants for tagging and other works. With 9 anglers actively looking for ‘Bronzies’ we were all somewhat seriously disappointed with just 2 ‘Bronzies’ landed and tagged in 2 days, though we did experience a good number of hook ups, and seriously long fights before the local conditions caused line breaks. The first fish fell to the youngest angler in the party – Gunther Doll, and after 2 hours and 35 minutes he finally landed the 200kg Copper shark, which was very well received on the beach, but very unusual in the ‘fight time’. Something was making these fish cautious and fight like demons.

Bertie, Eiko, Jeri and Gunther all experienced sharks that just wanted to swim to the end of the line, and tactics were varied in how to address these ‘tearaway’ fish; Bertie just limited the fish to 300m of line then started running down the beach to follow and maintain pressure, Eiko let them run further before taking up the beach running, Jeri let them run before applying serious ‘stop it in its tracks’ pressure – all failed. On hook up the fish were racing offshore beyond a sand and shingle bank, and then either heading north or south without stopping. After a few more break offs, Bertie, probably one of the most experienced ‘Bronzie’ angling guides in Namibia decided that these fish were just so unusually powerful that drastic measures were needed, he rigged his very serious beach rod with a Shimano Tiagra 30, a reel normally used to address Marlin and large Tunas. He reckoned that the drag capacity and twin speed facility might be enough to subdue these fish; though watching him cast with a huge boat trolling reel was a marvel. The next ‘Bronzie’ that took his bait did in fact come to the shore, but again only after running him up the beach a couple of kilometres, and a couple of hours of sweat!

11 hours serious fishing, 9 anglers and only 2 tagged sharks was a real disappointment for Hannes, and the trip was beginning to look a disaster, so plans were hatched for the following day, to investigate further up the coast, to find less hazardous fishing areas, and perhaps more sharks. The following day we travelled further north, and eventually found the end of the offshore sandbar, and set out our stall for the ‘Bronzies’. Smooth hounds and ‘Spotties’ were less prolific at this mark, which was first viewed as an encouraging sign. However, it was not to be, and after a couple of hours with just a few lesser sharks we travelled back to our original fishing zone and tried again. This day was to be a disaster, having fished the best of the tide at the new mark we were to get no serious shark takes at the original mark, just one hook up to Morne.

Late in the afternoon, just at low water Morne had a pick-up that didn’t seem like a ‘Bronzie’, and was surmised to be a very large Sharpnose Skate. Related to our Common Skate but growing to over 300kg, this beast followed the same pattern as the ‘Bronzies’, over the sandbar and headed north, with angler in tow! After we followed Morne for a couple of kilometres, we suggested that probably the only way to turn the fish was to get in front of the beast, and put pressure on its nose, and hopefully turn it inshore. With supreme effort Morne ran up the beach for another 1000 metres and then ‘dug in’, to put some serious pressure on the fish. After anther 20 minutes with no sign of the fish moving from its northward path the line finally parted on the sandbar, and a near exhausted Morne felt almost reprieved, but all anglers know the loss of a big fish is a heavy burden, even after a very long fight.

That evening after 2 days of serious fishing, the combined opinion of the very experienced crew was that we were just not going to find the abundant numbers of ‘Bronzies’, and that the prevailing conditions were going to continue to defeat the tagging efforts of this trip. Hannes decided on one last effort to redeem the shark tagging, and if that failed to produce fish,\then the anglers could have the reward of fishing the fabled Kunune River mouth. The following day dawned with everybody equally enthusiastic about catching ‘Bronzies’, even after 2 very disappointing days – coffee drunk we headed off. Trying every trick they could think of, and a few more besides; the ‘Bronzies’ just weren’t going to oblige, so with a long face our normally cheerful leader decided that we were off to the Kunune. Though we were there at less than optimum time for the ‘summer’ species; we caught Kob and Grunter; and the change in body language of anglers as they started catching serious fish again after 2½ days of disappointing sharks was a sight to behold.

Never taking more than necessary, we caught plenty of fish for that evenings planned fish supper, and then started releasing all that were caught. Returning to camp after our last day fishing, we started to make preparations for an early start the following morning, packing all the non-essentials and preparing for our last ‘Kunune Fish & Chips’. That evening while sitting around the fire, we were treated to visits from the local Silver Jackal population, who were so unperturbed by humans that they came to within 4 metres of us; they probably had never seen human beings before, and although naturally cautious, they never showed any of the fear normally displayed in more inhabited areas.

Early the following morning, before the sun had risen over the escarpment, we were packed and ready for the journey home, a last check before departing to ensure we had left no rubbish, and we headed for the beach zone. Low tide allowed us to make a good start on the journey we passed the last remnants of the Dunedin Star and then the Orion aircraft that had crashed supplying the survivors, and by Cape Fria we were pushed off the beach by the incoming tide, and had to head inland once more. We arrived back at Terrace Bay to everybody’s relief, as we were all running low on fuel – a product of too much beach driving looking for sharks. Once we departed from Terrace Bay we were back on the salt road, and it wasn’t until we had just completed 1800 km, that we saw the first other vehicle on the road, since leaving Walvis Bay 6 days earlier – this statistic brought home just how ‘empty’ the land north of Hentis Bay really is.

We left the main group at a side road just south of Terrance Bay, for a side trip inland; but it was with a sadness that saw our group start to dissolve from the impromptu team that it had become. Gunther and his brother Eiko were off to Swakopmund, back to desert adventure tours, Spyker and Bertie had visiting anglers to guide up the beaches north of Hentis Bay, Morne and his brother Franscoir were back to work in Windhoek, Hannes back to his lab at the Swakopmund Marine Institute, and Alfie to Walvis Bay. This is something that we have noticed in Namibia, whenever we visit, apart from the wonderful experience of the land and sea, we always depart having made some serious new friends – and must thank these folks for making us supremely welcome. A final thanks to Neels & Megan, who are now back running their marine safaris and plying their customers with delicious oysters and champagne.

 

This trip is not available in any shape or form currently on the market, however trips up the Skeleton Coast with camping, or more comfort afforded by small chalets are available through Hentis Bay Angling Centre, and tagging of ‘Bronzies’ is always available – just not into the ‘restricted area’.

A final footnote:

Below are a collection of some of the scenery pictures that we took during the trip, showing some very small part of the landscape, the animals found in various locations, and some of the flotsum and jetsum that can be found wandering up the coast line.