Cap Blanc

The Mediterranean monk seal is among the rarest marine mammals on earth - and its largest surviving colony hauls out below the cliffs of Cap Blanc, the peninsula tip near Nouadhibou where a small reserve protects the caves and beaches the seals depend on. Viewing runs from clifftop lookouts: dark torpedo bodies in the swell, hauled groups on the sheltered sand, the colony's survival here a quiet conservation success after decades of decline. The cape adds its own furniture - a lighthouse, the rusting picturesque of the coast's shipwreck era, and the strange geography of the peninsula.

History

Portuguese explorers first reached the cape, which they called Cabo Branco, in 1441. Spanish fishermen from the Canary Islands fished, whaled and hunted seals along this coast from 1500, and a lighthouse was built on the cape in 1910 (Wikipedia, Ras Nouadhibou).

The landscape

• The monk seals - the world's largest colony from the lookouts.
• The cliff caves - the breeding shelters that saved the species here.
• The lighthouse point - the cape's Atlantic full stop.
• The wreck coast - rusting hulls of the peninsula's ship-graveyard era.

When to go

November to March for cool viewing weather; seals attend year round with haul-outs best in calm seas. Mornings give the gentlest light on the water.

Things to know

Viewing is distant by design - binoculars make the visit, and descending to seal beaches is prohibited for exactly the reasons the colony survives. Arrange the reserve run from Nouadhibou with a local driver; the town itself is a working fishing-and-iron port, interesting in its own gritty right.

Nearby

Nouadhibou, the iron-ore train's terminus and the Banc d'Arguin south.

Key facts