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 border geography of a peninsula split with Western Sahara's line.

What you actually see

• 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.

Honest expectations

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.