off the beaten track n namibia
Cool for cats With vast, empty expanses of desert, a coastline of soaring sand dunes, wildlife-rich African bush, diamond rush ghost towns and a German colonial heritage still evident today, Namibia is a land of stark contrasts that tourists are just beginning to discover. Rob Crossan savours some close encounters of the furred kind as he explores he bowling alley is knee-deep in sand. Rather than the bilious clatter of skittle on wood, the only sound is that of the wind whipping up the peach-coloured sands as the shimmering heat of a late afternoon subsides and the shadows of the ghost town of Kolmanskop grow longer. The scene of one of the last century’s greatest diamond mining booms, Kolmanskop’s heyday, when the town’s bars and skittle alley were crammed with hustlers, shaman and opportunists, all seeking their fortune from the rhombus that washed up on the shores of the Skeleton Coast, has long gone. Since its abandonment at the end of 1950s, the clapboard houses and rotting verandas have been getting slowly reclaimed by the mighty Namib Desert, vast dunes burying some of the old homes up to their chimneys.
T
n
Namib desert
Visiting Namibia, I quickly realised that, whether it be the verdant tropical lushness of the north of the country or the arid desert wastelands of the south – where Kolmanskop is slowly disappearing, this is a land where nothing moves quickly and where nature is given the space to breathe and evolve entirely on its own terms. Larger than Spain and Portugal combined, yet with a population of barely two million, Namibia is one of the emptiest, and one of the newest, nations on the planet. With a murky colonial past where it was one of Germany’s few African outposts (explaining why much of the white population in coastal towns such as Swakopmund are tri-lingual in German, English and Afrikaans) and decades as part of apartheid South Africa, Namibia finally achieved independence in 1990. Now its stark, otherworldly beauty, for so long known only to diamond workers and indigenous Bushmen, is beginning to be discovered.
Namibia Tourism www.fotoseeker.com/Lisa Young
did you know? l The world’s largest underground lake, Dragon’s Breath Lake, is in the Otavi Mountains in north-east Namibia. Discovered in 1986, its surface area is about five acres. l The Namib is the world’s oldest desert, at about 80 million years old, and has the world’s highest sand dunes. It is sometimes called the “Living Desert” due to the wide range of its fauna. l The fossil plant, Welwitschia Mirabilis, grows in the Namib Desert and has a lifespan of up to 2,000 years. l Namibia has the largest free-roaming cheetah population in the world, estimated at 2,500. l Namibia is the largest producer of diamonds in the world. l Scores of shipwrecks litter the beaches of the Skeleton Coast – caused by dense fog and rough surf. Bleached whale and seal bones are a reminder of Namibia’s whaling industry.
72 tlm n the travel & leisure magazine
www.tlm-magazine.co.uk
Spring 2012