Skeleton Coast or The Gates of Hell

The Skelteon Coast was named by the Portuguese sailors as the Gates to Hell. If you ever got shipwrecked here, that was the end of your trip. The currents were too strong to row back from the coast to a boat. There is a constant, heavy surf on the beaches. Going inland, or south or north alont he coast are hundres of kilometers desert to cross. Rainfall rarely exceeds 10 millimetres annually and the climate is highly inhospitable. The chance that you were getting shipwrecked here was quite high, as many of the old ships in the sand proove. The upwelling of the cold Benguela current gives rise to dense ocean fogs for much of the year. So a lot of ships got lost in the fog and strand on the beach.

Pascal Brackman