On gravel roads to Luderitz and beyond

Two hards days for our trusty driver and bumpy ones for us as we drove south on gravel roads to get to Luderitz, a port town in the south of Namibia that provides access to the ‘ghost towns’ of Kolmanskoppe and Elizabeth Bay (intriguingly often referred to here as E-Bay!) each of which would offer a full day’s entertainment for the photographer.

This was also one of the days when it was possible to shoot huge landscapes as we drove along and to be drawn in by the different colours.

Very occasionally someone spotted an animal in the landscape and called for the driver to stop – often they seemed merely dots on the horizon. Those ‘animals’ sometimes turned into bushes or trees as we moved closer and sometimes a wildebeest became a cow or an impala a springbok.

There were big skies, too – even some angry looking clouds.

Helmeringhausen is a tiny one street town very reminiscent of some of the mid-Western USA Route 66 towns. I’m not sure this one even had a bar and when I tried to sit with access to the internet I was left in total darkness at just 9pm! But the food was good and we were well looked after.

We left quite early with still nearly 300km to travel to the famous ghost towns.

About halfway squeals of amazement came from the front seats: as we were sweltering with some airconditioning and open windows two cyclists had been sighted. We were amazed that anyone would consider cycling any distance in this heat. Soon after we pulled in to a derelict railway station: reminiscent more of Central Australia this time than the mid-West USA. We snapped away :

No sooner had we stopped than the cyclists pulled in, one of them a photographer who was as interested in the derelict site as we were. It transpired they were cycling from Cape Town back to their home in Shanghai. They expected their journey to last up to three years while some of our group were beginning to comment that three weeks was a long time to be away from home and family! Madness? Excitement? Curiosity? Adventure? Call it what you will such an undertaking certainly needs strength of character and determination.

And then we were on the final leg: Luderitz was within striking distance and the next day would have us exploring Kolmanskoppe of which we had all heard so much and had such high expectations!