Diamond mining has driven much of the areas economics. We met a couple in Luderitz who managed the operations of the de Boers diamond mines nearby. As with the rest of the world, diamonds have fallen on hard times because they are a luxury. The company has over a year’s supply of inventory on hand and has shut the mines for 4 months giving all employees a fully paid leave of absence. So, even in the little town of Luderitz our U.S. housing market collapse has affected this local economy.
Luderitz and Kolmanskop
Luderitz was our first Port of Call in Namibia and in the morning we headed out to Kolmanskop, the first diamond mine. In the 19th century Jan Kolman was traversing the desert when he began finding what appeared to be diamonds on top of the sand. From there the town was founded and the Germans began to arrive. It is now a Ghost town with the Sand trying to reclaim what’s left. It operates as a museum and we found it pretty interesting to see how these 400 people lived while digging for diamonds. They built an ice house, sausage factory, bowling alleys and a medical clinic. They were able to use shovels since the diamonds were very close to the surface and large equipment had not yet been invented. After the 90 minute tour we found our taxi driver and began the trip back to Luderitz. On the way, he announced that the fee he had committed to was only a one way fare and that he wanted double the price. I told him to take us to the tourist office and we would straighten it out. He finally agreed to a $5 tip. These guys are in training for a New York City taxi job.
As you can see from the pictures of Luderitz, it’s a very pretty seaside town. It sits on rocky shores and reminded us of Maine, although it’s much drier. The buildings are painted bright colors and most of the roads are sand. They’ve begun some work to attract tourists along the waterfront with a few shops and restaurants. We had a delightful day walking in the spring like weather and ate lunch overlooking the harbor. The ship was unable to moor alongside the pier because of tides. The Captain also announced that the Rotterdam would have been the largest ship ever to enter the harbor and he did not feel good about that. So, we tendered in from the outer harbor.
Walvis Bay and Swakopmund
Walvis Bay (Whale Bay) our Port is about 350 miles North of Luderitz, also on the Atlantic. Our destination this day was the Sand Dunes about 20 miles North in Swakopmund. We had agreed with some shipboard friends to rent 4 by 4 ATV’s and take a guided tour of the Namib desert. We didn’t know what to expect but all agreed that it ranked high on the “most fun” scale when we were done. The dunes can reach 1,000 feet high and as the group of 15 followed our guides we all became more confident—probably a mistake. The dunes became more like the moon and much of the time we travelled on virgin sand with the Atlantic off to our West. The Weather was perfect and after 2 hours of non stop action we were ready for lunch and Beer at a German Brew house in Swakopmund.
When we returned to the port we found out that the ships Dentist had to be medivacked. He took the ships excursion on the ATV’s and flipped over shattering his collarbone. We’ll pray that we don’t have a toothache on the way to Fort Lauderdale.
But for us it was a great day and a good send off as we left the African continent for St. Helena in the mid Atlantic.
Luderitz and Kolmanskop
Swakopmund and Namid Desert
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