Departure 2014-Feb-19 - 9.00     Arrival 2014-Feb-19 - 16.30

After two days in the Kalahari desert I enter Namibia! I am curious - will it be majorly different from South Africa? What landscape is it made off? How will the people be? Will there be as many Germans as I expect? It always is an excitement to get to know a new country… still!

Entering Namibia from the East, I am leaving the desert and then driving through a stretch of plains. My first stop is in Keetmanshoop - in a "Schnitzel-Haus" to be exact! Yes, I do expect German food - No, don't expect German habits. I arrive there at a bit after 2 and (what a surprise) the kitchen is closed. How can a country that far away from Germany still practice these old school rules of theirs?!

Keetmanshoop and I have a bad start and it doesn't really get better. This city is situated at a major crossing of Namibias main roads, connecting North-South and East-West and this gives it the feel of a boarder town. After doing groceries, spending one night in the Quivertree Forest and visiting the "Giants Playground" I am gone - off to the coast. I am sure it will be better there... 

Departure 2014-Feb-20 - 12.00     Arrival 2014-Feb-10 - 18.00

Even though the Fishriver Canyon is supposed to be the highlight of Namibia, I decide to skip it. You can't see it all and expecting 40 degrees in the canyon helps to cross this one off my list. Instead, I am on my way to Lüderitz - a town with German architecture at the Atlantic Ocean.

Namibia only has 2 million inhabitants, most of which live in the northern parts. The road to Lüderitz leads through deserted highlands and a 100km wide desert. This desert stretches from the North to the South through all of Namibia. It made the inland difficult to be accessed for the Germans who first landed in Lüderitz more then 100 years ago.

Driving through here is still a little adventure - and beautiful. The road leads along the railroad tracks - reminiscence of the old times, when Germans tried to build a railroad from the coast to the inland. Every here and there deserted houses appear - they must be the old railroad stations. The wind is picking up the later it gets and 20km before reaching Lüderitz it has developed into a (weak) sandstorm.

The city of Lüderitz is indeed astonishing. Many of the houses are build around 1900 and are painted in various colors: Green, red, blue, yellow …. some dull, some bright … I had already missed seeing that when traveling throughout South Africa; especially as coming from Asia, where everything seems to be in pop-colors. Here, I enjoy seeing all these different shades and it feels like a little treat to me. In addition to that I am absolutely enjoying being in a harbor town! The wind and the smell of the sea make me feel like home (... at least a little). What is weird though is that it is impossible to buy fresh fish here - only deep frozen stuff! With the ocean right there? Strange … But locals tell me the fishery here is only for export and not for the local sale. Bummer - I was already looking forward to BBQ-ing a lobster.

A 15min drive back into the desert from Lüderitz lieys the ghost-town of Kolmannskoop. This town, in the area of the "Sperrgebiet" developed into a town for diamond diggers. Now, the only thing that is left of it is these empty houses, no one is living here anymore.

A few of them still have their interior set up, but most of them are fighting against being eaten-up by the sand. Most of them are still intact and you can enter them (at own risk), even go to the top floor, but it is obvious: sooner or later they will go down.

Being as deserted this ghost town has a magical feel to it - wouldn't there be as many tourists wandering around and taking pictures. 

continue with ... CENTRAL NAMIBIA