The team are now on their way to London Heathrow for their flight to Windhoek, Namibia. They will have a few last days of training before they start the expedition on the 8th October. I will then be updating the blog daily, as well as updating their route map. Sign up to recieve daily updates!

Leonie

Always very helpful and understanding, these people have helped with not only a brand new hotel but also organising some very difficult logistics, many thanks from us all on the expedition.

Terra Nova
Simone von Lüttwitz
Tel.: +264 64 403893
Mobile: +264 81 280 1156
simone@terra-nova.com.na
www.tera-nova.com.na

Breitling Watches are the best friend of many explorers and travellers around the world.  Breitling sponsors Jason De Carteret with an Emergency Watch which he has taken to both the North and South Pole including countless other expeditions which he leads.

“When you are in difficult areas in challenging situations it is of the utmost importance to have reliaible equipment and the Breitling watch has never let me down,  I would not ever lead an expedition without one” … Jason De Carteret FRGS

No stranger to adventure, Gaynor has hiked up mountains, rafted down rivers and dog-sled across winter landscapes in search of the ultimate challenge.  So much so that she does it for a living as well as in her spare time, currently working as a Director at Voyage Concepts Ltd, the logistics and production company behind the Namibia Expedition.  This has afforded her the privilege to visit numerous places including Svalbard, Nepal, Zambia, South Africa, Tanzania, Russia, Alaska, Guatemala, Belize, Australia, New Zealand and theHigh Arctic to name a few!

The Skeleton Coast Expedition promises to be the most challenging and rewarding of her trips to date and will undoubtedly be the pinnacle of her adventures.  “I have always thought of Africa as having a kind of magic that can’t be replicated elsewhere so getting the chance to be part of team that will be the first to explore the Skeleton Coast on foot and unsupported will be as rewarding personally as it will be historically significant for Namibian tourism.”

Andrew is a specialist adventure filmmaker, who has produced amongst others, over 70 expedition documentary films for the National Geographic Channels.  He runs his own film school that teaches people how to handle their own camera equipment and get more from the filming they do, for more information contactThe Explorers Film School

Filming in some of the world’s most inhospitable environments; from the largest ice cap in the world; Antarctica, to the sand dunes of the oldest desert in the world; in Namibia. Andrew has filmed hanging out of helicopters over giant glaciers, underwater inside the Arctic Circle, whilst cycling across a whole country, and whilst climbing some of the highest mountains in the world in the Himalayas. Andrew has worked with some of the world’s top explorers including; Bear Grylls, Pen Hadow (first person to walk solo to the geographicNorth Pole from America), Lewis Gordon Pugh (holder of the record for the longest cold water swim), and Jason De Carteret (first British person to complete the most Northern dog sled race, and led the Guinness record breaking journey, for the fastest land expedition to the South Pole).

Namibia’s endangered species include Wild Dog, Black Rhino, Oribi and Puku. The Black and White Rhino have suffered the most from poaching and are on the verge of extinction. If there had been no moves to save them in the last 20 years they probably would have disappeared form the wild altogether. Although both species occur naturally in Namibia, today you will find in many of the reserves that they have been reintroduced. The country also has the largest population in southern Africa of cheetah not contained within National Parks. There are over twenty species of antelope in Namibia ranging from largest, the Eland, to smallest, the Damara dik-dik. The Gemsbok, a striking antelope with long symmetrical horns and distinctive black and white markings is featured on the Namibian coat of arms.

As the only species of seal breeding on the African continent, Cape fur seals when first sighted by the earliest European explorers, were described as a “sight honourable to behold” and their island habitats as, “in mine opinion, there is not an island in the world more frequented by seabirds and seals”.

Named originally as the Cape fur seal, sealing ensured the complete extermination of these seals on islands off the Cape. By 1900, they were near extinction, with 99% of their former islands, remaining extinct to this day. No mainland colonies existed. This violation by sealers, forced the government of the day to place seals under the protection of the Cape Fish Act of 1893.

Annual permitted population reduction culls continued on islands. By 1940s, 11% of the remaining seal population had fled to Namibia. By the 1970s, Seals had fled and established mainland colonies in Namibia, where 50% of the seal population had now settled. By the 1990s it had risen to 75% of the population, and with it came officially the name change, from Cape fur seals to South African fur seals, no doubt to explain the loss of seals in the Cape.

The most famous wreck, and story, is that of the Dunedin Star. Just in case you are one of the six or seven people on earth who aren’t familiar with the story, here it is again…

On 29 November 1942, the Blue Star Liner, Dunedin Star, heading for the Middle East, and carrying passengers, as well as munitions for World War II, ran aground off the Skeleton Coast. The crew managed to get off a distress signal which was received in the port of Walvis Bay to the south.
The environment was anything but friendly: hot in the day, cold at night, very dry with no friendly little villages to take in the survivors and give them mugs of hot chocolate or medicinal brandy. Everyone was very concerned.

A tug, the Sir Charles Elliot, was dispatched, but ran aground before it reached the Dunedin Star. Two of its crew members jumped overboard but were drowned before they could reach the shore.

A bomber was sent from the Cape of Good Hope to land with supplies and water for the survivors who had made it to shore. It landed, but got stuck in loose sand when trying to take off. A second bomber was sent to replenish supplies. As it did not land, merely dropped its supplies, it had no problems at the site of the wreck. Instead it crashed into the ocean on the way back. Three crewmen made it to shore and began their long walk.
A ship called the Nerina made it to the site, but only managed to pick up 29 survivors. This left 63 on site. A convoy was dispatched from Windhoek but, to the best of my knowledge, had major vehicle difficulties and had to return. A second convoy was sent off. This made it to within three kilometers of the survivors. They trudged the rest of the way. One wonders what the survivors had to say when they saw their rescuers arrive on foot. On the way back, they also collected the airman who had swum to shore from the bomber that crashed into the ocean.

The survivors made it back safely some 26 days later, arriving in Windhoek on Christmas Eve. Apparently, you can still see some of the cargo.

Click here to join our group on Facebook and keep up to date with the team’s progress!

Listen to Andrew tell it how it really was on the Skeleton Coast  in a BBC Radio Sussex interview.

(Andrew’s Interview is about 2 hours 40 minutes minutes into the show)

For information about learning how to video your own expedition and to enhance your own camera skills sign up for a course taught by Andrew, contact The Explorers Film School