Luderitz, Namibia - Day 270 - Boots on the Loose

Loooong straight road from Keetmanshoop to Luderitz (paved) with the Restricted Diamond Area on the left southern side, and the edge of the Namib desert on the right northern side. Got into the sandy stuff for the last little bit, came up over the hill and poof – the Atlantic Ocean! (first ocean we’d seen since Zanzibar)

What a beautiful sight Luderitz is – incredibly colourful buildings everywhere, hilltop churches and mansions, the ocean, the sand dunes, far warmer than inland… I could almost live there. Stayed at the Hansa Haus up on the hill offering a really nice view of the harbour; immediately after getting settled in decided to make use of the patio and attempt to revitalize these failing tans of ours.

Following morning we headed south out of town a short ways (as far as you can go with the diamond area being there) to check out a few of the viewpoints that are there. Went and dipped my feet in the ocean to say I did, and Zowie… that water is COLD!!! (at least as cold as Vancouver if not colder) Heading north back towards Luderitz along the gravel road, made a couple more stops including the last one which is for a viewpoint of Halifax island where you can see hundreds of little penguins waddling around on the shore (pretty far away though unfortunately, and you’re not allowed on the island). Just as we were standing there admiring this with the sun setting behind, a bunch of dolphins pulled in and started playing around between us and the island (just when you thought it couldn’t get better!). Headed back to town for a nice seafood curry at a restaurant down at the docks, after dinner went on the pier to look at the glowing green water from the lights they’ve setup underneath the pier… got to watch a big, fat seal swim around under us, feeding on the schools of fish! (a full day of wildlife)

About 20km back on the main highway (heading directly east out of Luderitz) is a little ghost town called Kolmanskop that’s gradually being buried by the approaching desert (turned out to be one of those places where you can’t take a bad picture). As we approached the town on the highway had a hyena dart across in front of us… we later learned there’s one, lone hyena living in the area and you’re very lucky if you see it! Did an hour and a half tour then got to wander around on our own afterwards (other than 1 house that looks like it might collapse at any moment, you can walk wherever you want). Lots of nifty facts as usual on the tour: Kolmanskop has been a ghost town since 1954, started in the late 1800’s by the Germans as a diamond mining town, had the first x-ray machine in Southern Africa which was used to make sure no one was stealing diamonds, as opposed to medical purposes (as well they had the largest hospital in Southern Africa for a while); tour was good except the facts were all in English and the comic relief seemed to always come in Afrikaans, so everyone else around us got a few good laughs. Was VERY cool walking through these old houses having to duck under the doorways because of the piles of sand on the floor. Jen and I walked through the hospital on our own which was incredibly eerie (felt like something out of the Shining). As well they’ve restored one of the houses but both of us found that less interesting than the real stuff! (also we were told to watch out for snakes which is always an exciting warning)

Headed back to town to go to Agate Beach but it turned out to be fairly cold and windy so wasn’t that great (plus the car got stuck in the sand not once but twice… couple guys gave us a push and jokingly muttered something about “stupid tourists” in Afrikaans). Back to the same seafood curry restaurant for a second go, then out to the bar to checkout Luderitz on a Saturday night (the music was indescribably bad, the few people that came were fun to watch though) then off to bed. Was odd how quiet the town was at night: couldn’t eat at the restaurant without a reservation, had a tough time getting a place to stay… yet the 1 or 2 bars were empty every night. Maybe it’s simply because Jen and I are way more fun than everyone else!!