We made it to Namibia! The biggest thing that will forever come to mind for me for Namibia is sand, sand, and more sand. Part of it might be the excursions I chose for the two ports in the country, but it truly is a land of sand. Our first stop was in Lüderitz, a town in Southern Namibia and, as Wikipedia says, it lies “on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa.” Of course, if you’re going to talk about inhospitable coasts, you can’t leave out the fact that the northern part of the Atlantic coast of Namibia is literally referred to as Skeleton Coast because of the whale and sea bones that would litter the coast – and because of the skeletal remains of shipwrecks caused by offshore rocks and fog. The indigenous people apparently called the region “The Land God Made in Anger” and Portuguese sailors referred to it as “The Gates of Hell.” These are lovely things to think about as you approach the country by boat…
Anyway, we arrived (safely) into Lüderitz, a town discovered by a Portuguese explorer in 1488 but not settled until some four centuries later, when German tobacco merchant Adolf Lüderitz purchased much of the surrounding land. In 1909, the sleepy port soon became an important German supply post and grew dramatically after diamonds were unearthed in the nearby Namib Desert. Not long after, the diamond rush moved further south and the World Wars took their toll so the numbers in the area shrank again. According to Wikipedia, “in an effort to remove colonial names from the maps of Namibia, on 8 August 2013 the Namibian government renamed the constituency ǃNamiǂNûs, its name prior to 1884.” Given I can’t even pretend to pronounce that, I’ll just call it Lüderitz but acknowledge that it’s not the original name of the town.
Lüderitz was a quaint town, easily walkable from the ship. In fact, one of the excursions offered was a walking tour of the town where you would go to famous landmarks including a diamond entrepreneur’s mansion, a church, and a museum. You know, the standard landmarks. People who went on the excursion said it was great though, so I’m not knocking it.
My excursion was a little further out, however. I journeyed to Kolmanskop (aka Kolmanskuppe), a veritable Namib Desert ghost town that has been abandoned since the 1950s. The name Kolmanskop is believed to have originated from a transport driver named Johnny Kolman. He delivered goods between towns and on one trip he got caught in a terrible sandstorm, his oxen ran off, and his wagon got stuck on the hilltop (the kuppe). Although Johnny was rescued, his wagon remained there and the hilltop was named after him.
The real story behind Kolmanskop is not in its name, though, but rather it’s the diamonds. In 1908, as the story goes, a railroad worker named Zacherias Lewala was working and discovered some shiny objects. They were, of course, diamonds, and Lewala’s German employer jumped on it. He ran out and got a bunch of mining claims and began to gather diamonds. I say ‘gather’ and not ‘excavate’ because that’s what it entailed here. The diamonds were not buried in stone and no tools were needed to get them. Rather, the stones were simply lying loose in the sand, simply needing to be picked up. They had been washed up by the water (which is why the best specimens would be near the Orange River) and were so plentiful that they could be seen by moonlight. Soon a diamond rush was in effect, and people came from all over to the area.
It was because of the diamond rush that Kolmanskop as a town was born. Hundreds of families moved to the village, which was designed in characteristic German style. The town grew rapidly, at its peak boasting a hospital, ballroom, casino, bowling alley, and the first x-ray station in the Southern Hemisphere. Of course, that x-ray machine was less for medical ailments and more for the detection of diamond smuggling.
The town was very cool to see. Many of the original buildings were still standing, now scoured by wind and sand since the departure of the residents, who decamped when diamond sales plummeted following WWI.
The town is now open for visitors to see (obviously) and the operators have placed signs on the buildings indicating what they were.
There was a police station (camels were used frequently for their patrols), a post office (opened in February 1909), a general dealer’s store, a bakery, butchery, and a lemonade and soda-water factory that used the same cooling facilities as the butchery. There was an ice making facility which provided each household daily with a free block of ice which was made in special upright, long and narrow forms. Each morning the ice vendor came down the streets, which were even then smothered with sand, to deliver the daily ration of ice blocks and cold drinks to each household. We saw the ice house up close, and the train that was pulled by donkey that was used to transport the ice to the homes.
The levels of renovations varied by building. Some were renovated just enough to make them safe for visitors, but otherwise left to the demise of time and sand. Other buildings had more renovations done, such as the casino (the most recent building made) – to bring it back to what it likely was like in its heyday. Yet others were remodeled for film purposes (movie crews apparently love to film here, and photographers love to come to capture the images for themselves). Some buildings provided a glimpse at how the furniture and decorations within the homes likely looked.
Yet other buildings were unfurnished, with sand overtaking the floors. In some cases, the floor was so covered with sand that the doorways were miniaturized, as the floor was now much higher up due to the sand that had blown in.
Some buildings had less sand inside since they still had some of their windows in tact, and you could see how lovely the homes likely were when people lived there.
We were given an hour-long tour of the town, which was quite interesting. Our tour guide was a fourth-generation Namibian whose great-great-grandfather was one of the founding figures in town. The stories we heard were great, including tales of the social lives of the families, the entertainment that was brought in for the townspeople (including famous opera singers and dance troupes), and even a pet ostrich that one family owned that was used to pull Father Christmas’s sleigh at Christmas time. In the casino, you could see gymnastics equipment that people used as well as a bowling (‘skittle’) alley for recreation purposes.
After our tour, we were given a while to explore on our own. It was relaxing to wander through the various buildings and explore the town. Apparently we were lucky because there was almost no wind blowing the sand around, which is rare according to our tour guide. We were told that although the capital city of Namibia is called Windhoek (pronounced vind-hook), it is a joke that Lüderitz should have the name because it is derived from the Afrikaans words wind (meaning wind) and hoek (meaning corner) and Lüderitz is actually in the corner of the country and the windiest place of all. So wandering around was pleasant in part due to the abnormal lack of wind.
The casino had a section that was set up with photos of the mining operations and social life. In addition, there was an exhibit all about diamond smuggling and the various techniques people would try to get diamonds out of the mines for themselves. From hiding the diamonds in shoes, briefcase handles, radio equipment, and rectums (ew), people tried everything. It was clear why the x-ray machine was necessary. The exhibit gave stories of what people tried and how they were caught, as well as how they were arrested and fired.
Overall, this was a very cool excursion. I even had enough time after exploring to enjoy a Coke and a slice of lemon meringue pie in the café on site.
After the excursion, we headed back to the ship. On our way, we pulled over to enjoy various views. Here’s one of the waterfront. In it you can see oyster farms dotting the water.
We drove through town and enjoyed the views of local life, which was pretty lowkey and uneventful. That concluded the day in Lüderitz and Kolmanskop.