Terrace Bay on the Skeleton Coast

Terrace Bay is located on the Skeleton Coast in Namibia, one of the most inhospitable places on earth and it is an absurd location, it seems to be at the end of the world.

It is surrounded by desert dunes and lies on the Atlantic Ocean, here the air is so damp that it seems to be raining, the waves crash on the coast, and the seagulls and cormorants are perched on the roofs and on the wooden light poles.

Here is a lodge, the only one where you can stay if you want to visit the Skeleton Coast and you want to get to the end of the driveable road; from this point onwards you can only go by plane.

When we arrive at the Terrace Bay Camp, we go first to check in at a facility that looks more like a hangar than the reception of a hotel, then we drive to our room, a cottage on the beach, a few meters away from where the waves break.

Our neighbors are mostly fishermen, they have huge fishing rods fixed on the bumper of their off-road and they have giant crates where they keep the fish they catch; in the reception there is a map of the Skeleton Coast with all the points where you can fish and information about the moon phases and tide schedules.

There are also some travelers who, like us, have decided to explore this coastal desert that has always been the terror of those who venture on it, both on land and above all by sea.

There is nothing here, but it is beautiful because of this, only the noise of the ocean while the moist of the mist baths our faces and clothes; we take a walk to the beach, we like a lot to be here.

We go to dinner around 7:00pm, the last available slot, and the dining room is also absurd: all the walls and the ceiling are covered with letters and signatures of travelers and fishermen who have passed by here; it is too good to read all the messages in so many languages, and we too, of course, leave the mark of our passage.

After dinner, returning to our room, we see a shadow that is wandering not far away from us, it is a black-backed jackal, most likely looking for something to eat; here are also the brown hyenas, but they are more difficult to see because, compared with jackals, they remain more hidden.

We go to sleep early, today has been long and a bit tiring, we must regenerate ourselves to continue our journey.