Huge numbers of Cape fur seals bask on the fine sand, in unblinking sunshine. It’s an idyllic, sometimes comical scene. Yet beyond them, poking out of the water like old bones, are reminders of how the coastline acquired its sinister name; the wrecks of vessels broken on the edge of this unforgiving land.

Flying back to the camp you soar over extraordinary, wind-sculpted dune fields and vast tracts of wilderness punctuated by green oases, floodplains and dry riverbeds. From above it doesn’t seem likely that much can live in such rugged country, but you’re staying at Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp on your luxury, tailor-made holiday to Namibia – so you’ll embark on game drives and walks to see lions, elephants, giraffe, gemsbok, springbok, reptiles and insects. All perfectly desert-adapted.