Lüderitz is a settlement and port on the Atlantic Ocean that is known for its Art Nouveau architecture – in fact, it literally came out of nowhere during the German colonial period around 1900. However, it made a name for itself during the German colonial period as a diamond stronghold. A German engineer found diamonds in the sand here while working as a supervisor on the construction of a railroad line, and a short time later not only he was stone rich, but also the whole area around Lüderitz was designated as a restricted area, and during the next decades tons of jewelry diamonds were fished out of the sand.
Today, the main reminder of this is the ghost town of Kolmanskop, the most famous of the then diverse mining villages in the middle of the desert, which can be visited today. And so, in the middle of the Namib, you stumble upon the ruins of early 20th century German culture, butcher and bakery stores, a gymnasium with high bar and trestle, and a bowling alley with German rules on the wall. All quite funny and explained with a cute German accent by our guide, but somehow a bit too much German kitsch for our needs. The impressive part actually comes after the tour. We stroll through the slowly decaying houses, which are partly more partly less filled with sand and enjoy the play of light and shadow in mostly collapsed buildings. Here one could actually occupy oneself purely with photographing for hours, constantly the lighting conditions change at the often still well preserved pastel-colored interior walls.
So long we hold up our but not, but continue to the Namib on a private “game farm”. We learn that animal welfare in Namibia also means that many private farmers earn their money with Tourist:innen, which rent on the farms and go on private safaris on the farm area. For farmers the wild animals – mostly antelopes, zebras, giraffes, but sometimes also lions and rhinos – thus become a source of income and their protection is in their interest. Since hunting licenses are also issued on these farms in some cases, this idea has a bland aftertaste for us, but it seems to work, because the animal population in Namibia has been relatively stable for decades and is also growing in some cases.
Our game farm for this night hosts 3 giraffes, one of which we also spy directly on the way to the reception. After a short cool down in the pool, we walk to the sunset a small hill high and enjoy the gigantic view.
The next stop is the world-famous dune landscape of Sossusvlei, but you’ll find that in the next post.