Shelter for introverts: What attracts the hotel on the Skeleton Coast - in a place from which it was possible to escape living units

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

This place seems very gloomy: the part of the coast of Namibia, which extends to the border with Angola, is a desolate desert, in which wrecks of ships and boats meet. People often died here, and it is no coincidence that this natural park was named "Skeleton Coast". However, in our time there are many people who want to visit these lands. Moreover, a hotel has recently appeared here: houses, standing right in the middle of the desert, are stylized as sunken ships.

Many did not survive

To understand all the eerie romance of this place, it's worth knowing its history. For a long time, local and international ships ply past this African coast, however, thick fog, the risk of hitting large boulders and shallows, storms and the cold Benguela current for centuries made sea travel in these places extremely dangerous.

Very often ships died off the coast of Namibia. Sailors, as a rule, did not survive, and if someone managed to get ashore, then an endless desert rose up in front of him.

Sometimes people who survived died on the shore - from heat, thirst and hunger. That is why this area was nicknamed "Skeleton Coast". The national park of the same name begins at the Ugab River and stretches about 500 kilometers up the Atlantic coast to the Kunene River.

Now the beaches of this coast are strewn with discolored whale bones and the wreckage of more than a thousand ships, and if you move inland, into the desert, the sand will be endless - no end, no end.

Sand swallowed up the sea

Most of the coast, in geological terms, is considered one of the oldest on Earth: the rocks of which it is composed are more than 1.5 billion years old. But it is also interesting that over time, the coastline began to gradually "shift" the sea waters, since sandy winds are constantly blowing towards the Atlantic.

Thus, in those places where many decades ago there was an ocean, it is now a desert. And among the sand, like gloomy monuments to old shipwrecks, now and then there are the remains of sunken ships - large ships and small boats.

Desert elephants and mosquitoes

However, the Skeleton Coast Natural Park is very picturesque and not as dead as it might seem. Here, for example, you can meet eared seals, coastal jackals, giraffes, lions and very rare animals - desert elephants. For a long time, there have been legends about the existence of the latter, which documentary filmmakers and scientists have only recently been able to confirm. These elephants are not like their regular counterparts. They are very well adapted to life in the desert, and the trunk is very cleverly used to dig sand in search of water.

And even in the seemingly uninhabited coastal dunes of this corner of Namibia, covered with lichens, you can find life - for example, reptiles or mosquitoes.

The hotel is part of the landscape

The Shipwreck Lodge (literally - "shipwreck") appeared here less than a year ago. It is located in the central area of the "Skeleton Coast" and is a series of wooden bungalows that resemble wrecked ships.

The project was developed by the architectural studio Nina Maritz Architects from the capital of Namibia. These strange wooden houses were already assembled on the spot - from the blanks brought here. Thus, the unique natural landscape was practically not disturbed during construction, but, on the contrary, perfectly fit into the landscape. Moreover, according to an agreement with the national park, these houses will stay here for only 25 years, and then they will be dismantled.

"Sunken ship" with amenities

The bungalows are powered by solar panels. Each house has WiFi, shower, toilet and even a laundry room. In the mornings, the staff serve the guests' tables, offering a breakfast buffet.

So the eerie feeling of being in the harsh conditions of the desert, which has become a graveyard for thousands of ships and people, is brightened up by gorgeous ocean views, privacy, tranquility and the presence of standard hotel "amenities".

Well, inside the wooden bungalows, stylized as the wreckage of ships, it is very cozy. Especially if you are in the company of the same romantics, among whom there are no impressionable and suspicious persons.

There are at least 25 on our planet remote places where you can be alone with yourself.