Photos

In the seal colony in Cape Cross. The of thousands of seal densely lying one by another is really i ncredible. One can observe many funny scenes there. it is a bit smelly place but not so much.

Cape Cross is a small headland in the South Atlantic in Skeleton Coast, western Namibia, 120 km north of Swakopmund on the west coast of Namibia.
The Portuguese navigator and explorer Diogo Cão was in 1484 ordered by King João II, as part of the search for a sea route to India and the Spice Islands, to advance south into undiscovered regions along the west coast of Africa. While doing so, he was to choose some particularly salient points and claim them for Portugal by setting up stone crosses called padrãos there.
During his second voyage, in 1484–1486, Cão reached Cape Cross in January 1486, being the first European to visit this area. During this voyage he proceeded ca. 1,400 km farther than during the first one. He is known to have erected two padrãos in the areas beyond his first voyage, one in Monte Negro, and the second at Cape Cross. The current name of the place is derived from this padrão. What can today be found at Cape Cross are two replicas of that first cross.

The inscription on the padrão reads,
In the year 6685 after the creation of the world and 1485 after the birth of Christ, the brilliant, far-sighted King John II of Portugal ordered Diogo Cão, knight of his court, to discover this land and to erect this padrão here.
Today Cape Cross is a protected area owned by the government of Namibia under the name Cape Cross Seal Reserve. The reserve is the home of one of the largest colonies of Cape Fur Seals in the world.
(after Wikipedia).