Ghosts & Wild Horses

We didn't make it very far from Luderitz when we decide to stop and check out the ghost town of Kolmanskop. In 1908 a worker found a diamond while working in this area and showed it to his supervisor, a German railway inspector. After realizing that this area was rich in diamonds, lots of German miners settled in this area and soon after the German government declared a large area as a "Sperrgebiet", starting to exploit the diamond field.

Driven by the enormous wealth of the first diamond miners, the residents built the village in the architectural style of a German town, with amenities and institutions including a hospital, ballroom, power station, school, bowling alley, theatre and sport-hall, casino, ice factory and the first x-ray station in the southern hemisphere, as well as the first tram in Africa. There was a railway link to Luderitz. The town declined after World War I when the diamond-field slowly exhausted and was ultimately abandoned in 1954. Now nature is taking over!

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After Kolmanskop we stopped at a watering hole to try and catch a glimpse of the wild horses. We were lucky to see 2 and some oryx then it was back on the road. Off to Fish River we go!