Cape Cross Seal Reserve — Attraction in Erongo Region

The Cape Colony Seal Reserve is 130 kilometres north of Swakopmund along the C34. This is a protected area where you can see one of the largest seal colony in the world. The Reserve opening hours are 10am to 5pm daily (as of Sept 2016) and entry fee is NAD$80 per foreign visitor and NAD$10 per vehicle.

Around 58 km north of Herties Bay you will see the sign for Cape Cross. Turn left and drive another 5-6 kilometres until you enter the fenced in area of the reserve. Shortly afterward, you will see a small office building and car park. This is where you register, pay your entry fee and pick up information about Cape Cross and the famous seal colony which is found throughout the year at this location.

Leaving the office, you drive gravel roads which are well marked with signs for another 3-4 kilometres until you reach the carpark next to a wooden walking platform. You won’t see the seals immediately but as soon as you exit your vehicle you will certainly smell them and know you are in the right place. Just try to get used to this overpowered stench as quickly as you can so that you can enjoy seeing the seals during your visit.

Walking along the wooden platform, you will see seals which will number in the tens of thousands. They are sprawled all over the beach and rocky area between the platform and the sea. Thousands more can be seen in the water as well. If you enjoy wildlife photography, you will find countless photograph opportunities here.

Stay on the walking deck and take as many pictures of the seals as you like. Some will be very close, under and even on the other side of the platform so you can take close-up photos if you like. Most of the seals seem to be laying about resting while many are interacting and barking.

At this time of year, you can see very large males fighting along the beachfront. Make sure to have a look out for jackals roaming along the beach as well. They seem to always be near the seal colony.

You should also save a few minutes to see the two memorial crosses which are located at the Seal Colony car park. This marks the spot where Portuguese explorer Diego Cao, the first white European in Namibia, erected a cross upon his landing in 1486.

There is also a small cemetery near to the Reserve office where you can see a handful of crosses, marking the graves of guano collectors and seal hunters stationed at a camp set up at Cape Cross between 1895 and 1903.

A further note of interest, on the approach to the Seal Colony, along Road C34 and the road leading to the Reserve, you will spot many wooden tables along the side of the road with large, mostly pink coloured salt crystals. These are actually for sale. Note the N$ price next to the salt crystals and the can or jar where you place your money if you decide to make purchase. These come from the local salt mine and are quite interesting to see even if you are not interested to purchase.

Note: You can make a detour to Cape Cross if traveling between Swakopmund and Damaraland by allowing an extra 2-3 hours travel time on the day. We did this by leaving Swakopmund early enough to arrive at the Reserve at its opening time at 10am. Our visit lasted just over an hour and fifteen minutes before we make our way back south on the C34, connecting with the C35 to Damaraland, arriving at our resort by mid-afternoon.

In the end, the Cape Cross Seal Reserve is a good stop for wildlife enthusiasts and photographers and seal lovers. We very much found it to be worth the detour if traveling between Swakopmund and Darmaland, even if just to see the sheer numbers of seals that can be seen at...

Do not support this! Horrific, horrific animal abuse!

Cape cross fur seal “reserve” is one of the most disgusting and disgraceful place I have ever seen, especially in the name of wildlife conservation. This place is literally killing seals. They have a stupid boardwalk right through the seal colony that prevents animal from getting to the water. We saw seals stuck in the boardwalk unable to get out and when you tell staff they just shrug and say “it happens all the time.” Tourists that walk along the boardwalk obliviously cause adults to panic and trample pups. On 14 December 2022-we watched workers digging with a backhoe in the middle on the colony, while mothers were in the middle of giving birth and newborn pups were everywhere. Why were they cause such a massive disruption during the seals most vulnerable moments? Because they were digging holes to burry all the dead pups that THEY are responsible for killing! Not only did the backhoe directly run over a weak newborn but it also caused all the adults to panic and run into the boardwalk squishing over a dozen pups in the process. Absolutely horrific!!! Every animal was clearly so stressed!

Yes, seal pups die in the wild, but nowhere near the rate they do at cape cross. And when they do they become food for hyenas and jackal, not buried in a manner that kills dozens more in the process. My children were absolutely traumatized and we left immediately because it was too depressing to watch.

This place should have the boardwalk removed and be permanently closed. The worst wildlife experience I have ever had. Do not support it! I wish...

This is a horrible and poorly run animal reserve which amounts to animal abuse. The walkway path has broken fence panels, allowing seal pups and even adults to get onto the elevated path, becoming trapped and dying. To walk around the park/walkway you have to step over dying, dead and rotting seals. Even adults are up on the walkway trapped, dangerously snapping around desperately trying to find a way out. There’s even a sign saying don’t corner seals but you can’t help it when you walk on the path. Animals are dead in many states of decay, rotting and even some just skins left, so there’s been no care for weeks here. With the amount of infrastructure there, surely a ranger can make a patrol every few hours with gloves on, helping the seals back into the nature. Or how about fixing the problem, fixing up the missing wooden panels and using some chicken wire around the bottom so babies can’t squeeze through the gaps in the first place even if there are little gaps in the fence. This park is killing animals for no reason and would definitely not recommend. This photo is quite a clean part of the path without too many corpses, but we didn’t want to take a photo of...