Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp

Hoanib is the reason we fly up the coast rather than inland. From Sossusvlei your Cessna Caravan heads north along the Atlantic, low over the Skeleton Coast National Park. You see wrecks half buried in sand, seal colonies packed along the shore and fog rolling in off the cold water. Then the pilot turns inland up the Hoanib River to the camp's remote strip. There is no road worth taking here, and the aircraft is the only sensible way in.

The camp belongs to Wilderness: eight suites in a remote valley in the Kaokoveld. The draw is the desert-adapted elephant, a small population that lives along the dry riverbed without permanent water. You track them on foot with your guide. It is slow, careful work, and when you find them you stop well back and watch. Evenings are a drive along the river valley, and the night sky is as dark as the NamibRand.

On The Skeleton Coast & Garden Route your aircraft also takes you east for a day at Twyfelfontein, where a San descendant guides you through rock engravings around 6,000 years old. You are back at Hoanib for the evening.

We give it three nights. It suits travellers who have done the classic safari and want somewhere harder to reach, and anyone who would rather walk to an elephant than drive to one. Expect quiet and very few people.

Good to know

• The camp is fly-in only. Pack soft bags for the Caravan; we confirm weight limits when we book your aircraft.
• Desert days can be hot and the nights cold. Dress in layers.
• The elephant walk is on sand and gravel at a slow pace. Good walking shoes are enough.

Country: Namibia