Skeleton Coast, by Amy Schoeman

Skeleton Coast, by Amy Schoeman.

The reader can share in experiencing strange beauties ot the Skeleton Coast through the visual feast presented in this magnificent book, written und fotograpfed by Amy Schoeman.

Amy Schoeman  

The Skeleton Coast of Namibia - once an area feared and shunned because of its treacherous coastline - is now prized as a place of beauty and tranquillity, a place of magnificent solitude. Apart from the legendary mineral wealth that has acted as a powerful magnet for explorers, prospectors and miners, few, people are able to visit this protected area, and its mystery remains largely intact. The Skeleton Coast Park extends from the Kunene River on the northern Namibian border to the Ugab River near Cape Cross in the south. Although it is one of the more recent and lesser-known parks in Africa, it is undoubtedly high on the list of the world's most unusual, fascinating and scenically beautiful areas. In this magnificent book, through her captivating photographs and absorbing text, Amy Schoeman shares with the reader the strange beauties of her life's passion. Skeleton Coast takes an in-depth look at the moist coastal desert park of northern Namibia. Magnificent photographs capture the life of the desert, its forms, colours and the moods of its ever-changing landscapes. The story of its geology and its minerals, as well as that of the richly diverse plant and animal life, set the scenes for the tales of shipwrecks - the Dunedin Star, Montrose and Suiderkus, to name a few - and of man's disastrous experiences in the wilderness area. Amy Schoeman traces the pattern of its history, from the early Portuguese explorers, to the many mining ventures of this century and the proclamation of the area as a park in 1971. In this, the updated edition of the book first published in 1984, Amy Schoeman presents a deeper and more penetrating look into the strange and elusive visual qualities of this remote, dynamic and awesome desert wilderness. It comes at a time when the future of the fragile area is uncertain in the face of development, uncontrolled tourism, and money-making schemes such as the dumping of toxic waste. She tells the controversial story of how the tourism rights to the wilderness section of the park were taken away from her husband Louw Schoeman, and awarded to a foreign investor. Louw had practised tourism in the park for 16 years, and was highly thought of in conservation and tourism circles. He died prematurely from a series of heart attacks on July 5, 1993. This book serves as a reminder of the fragile beauty of one of the most unusual desert environments in the world.

This is an exerpt from the book: Skeleton Coast, by Amy Schoeman.

Book title: Skeleton Coast.
Author: Amy Schoeman
Publisher: Southern Book Publishers
2nd. edition. Cape Town, South Africa 1996
ISBN 1868125939 / ISBN 1-86812-593-9
Original hardcover, original dustjacket, 22x30 cm, 148 pages, 97 colur photos, 13 illustrations, 2 maps