Day 110- Swakopmund 21/1/13

Up early to see the sunrise, and then on to Cape Cross to see a colony of some 100,000 fur (or eared) seals - what a smell! You wanted to stop breathing as soon as we got out of the truck, but very impressive to see, particularly as the females give birth in Dec/Jan so many pups to be seen. The kind of thing you watch on tv documentaries, so quite an experience to be within a couple of feet of them with just a low barrier between us.

Then we drove south along the "skeleton coast". Not sure if the name comes from the many wrecks over the years (caused by the currents and the very frequent thick fogs) or of the bones of the sailors who, if they did manage to swim ashore, found a land without food or water for many miles. We had our picnic lunch by one such recent wreck - but no sailors' bones! Gave my feet a wash in the Atlantic on this very desolate part of the African coastline. This may be Africa but this part of the world is known for how cold it is, and we now know what this means!

On further down the Atlantic coast to Swakopmund for three nights. This is very much an "activity" town - sky diving, paragliding, sand boarding down the dunes etc etc. I have chickened out of most, going on a botany tour and a (hopefully gentle) one hour of quad biking. We shall see what happens.

Absolutely delicious sea food platter for dinner, very elegantly served in one of the many local restaurants.