We left the Ugad river on our left and curved South to reached the Messum Crater. Once again, the road was bordered by Welwitschia. We didn't realised we were in the crater before looking at the GPS!!

We camped in a cave, almost at the exact center of this old vulcano crater. And the moon was almost full, it was an amazing night...

In the morning, we were greeted by a Familiar chat, jumping and puffing around us, so sweet!

The view was stunning in every direction!!

Above the camp, view on the car, and the hill I climbed up in the back ground.

Simply breath taking...

After reaching the Skeleton Coast NP gate, at the mouth of the Ugab river, we headed east following the dry river bed. Gemsbocks and springboks were waiting for us but were a little bit shy...

We then left the river on our left and follow the road in the middle of canyons and rocky plains, to find our first Welwitschia mirabilis. These plants are just amazing!! Look carefully, each of them as only 2 leaves...

We reached the coast at Henties Bay, and after refueling the car, we headed to Cape Cross, famous for it's Cape fur seal colony. Even though it was neither the breeding (October) or puping (December) season, hundreds of seals were resting on the beach and playing in the waves along the coast. As you can see, they can take some quite funny poses when they are sun bathing.

Walkways were built to walk along the seals, it's not possible to be directly on the beach anymore.

The smell of the place is quite potent I must say. Not only due to the live seals but also to the dead ones, burried in the sand all along the beach. Kelp gull were flying around, trying to reach pieces of meat to have a meal.

The noise was quite something too! Seals calling each other, fighting and all.

White fronted plover

Kelp gull

Immature Kelp gull

After Cape Cross, we drove along the coast up to the entrance of the Skeleton Park at the mouth of the Ugab river. It was quite cold there, with a lot of wind! Anyhw, it was great to be there, on the Atlantic Ocean listening to the waves carshing on the beach...

A very rare specimen of white hyaena spotted along the coast...

Ship wreck

Entrance of the Skeleton Coast NP, on the Ugab river

One of the reasons I really wanted to go back to Namibia was to return to the Spitzkoppe mountain. It's a group of orange rock formations in the middle of a flat desertic plain, and in my memory it was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It wasn't disappoiting to get back there at all, this area is simply stunning!!

The area is managed by the local community, and camp sites are scatered all around the mountain, most of the time separated from each other by 1km or so! They are just marked by a fire place, and water can only be found at the entrance of the conservancy.

To reach the top of the mountain, one needs special climbing equipment. As we didn't have any, we dediced to try to reach the pass at the foot of the slab leadding to the submit. It was actually harder that it seemed due to very large boulders quite dangerous to climb on. We stopped half-way to our goal, but were rewarded by a stunning view on the desert around, a large raock arch and very nice Quiver tree!! On our way, we also saw 4 Klipspringers climbing on the rocks.

Our camp site...

View from the camp: Grosse Spitzkoppe

Cross roads

Going up the mountain

View from up there, with cactus and Quiver tree

Quiver tree and rock arch

Thorns and rocks

African red eyed bulbul

Monteiro's hornbill

Rock dassie

Bokmakierie

Stunning arch at sunset