Luderitz

In Luderitz you can stay at comfortable hotels and escape the outside world

Stay at Luderitz and photgraph some of Neo Gothic architecture, museums, and restored mansions. Take desert excursions to Kolmanskop including the wild horses of Aus

• Why not take an ocean excursion to penguin and seal colonies
  
• Sail the bay and the archipelago and discover the bounty of the Atlantic Ocean
  
• Drive along the peninsula for some pretty dramatic scenery
  
• Photograph the Ghost towns of Kolmanskop and Elizabeth Bay relics of the diamond- era history
  
• Explore the Sperregbiet ( Forbidden Zone ) on a guided off road adventure
  
• Comfortable hotels and totally escape from the outside world
  
• Luderitz is the Rock Lobster capital of Namibia – taste this delicacy at any number of fantastic seafood restaurants

The sheer isolation of Luderitz, the curious way in which its colonial – style buildings cling to the rocks overlooking the bay, on some days a deep iridescent blue, on others grey and stormy, the crispy fresh climate, fishing boats bobbing up and down on the Atlantic Horizon, penguins and seals diving beneath the waves, give the town a curious other world allure. Luderitz was initially referred to as Angra Pequena, meaning Little Bay, by the Portuguese, whose navigator Bartolomeu Dias erected a stone cross on Dias Point on 25 July 1488. Heinrich Vogelsand, agent of the German merchant from Bremen Adolf Luderitz, landed at Angra Pequena on the 9 April 1883, to establish a trading station. In April 1884 this land became part of the protectorate of the German Protectorate, marking the beginning of the German control of Namibia.

If you go to Luderitz, and you should, you’ll be about as far from civilization as you can get in Namibia while still being in a developed town.

Look at  a Luderitz Map and see the Sperregebiet ( the forbidden diamond zone ) to the south, the Atlantic Ocean, to the west, the Sossusvlei and Namib Naukluft to the north, and the formidable Namib Desert to the east, Luderitz could not be any more remote.

With German style architecture locked in the early 1990’s during the time of the diamond- boom era, Luderitz has now grown into a major tourist attraction along Namibia’s rough and rugged 1500 km Skeleton Coast. Luderitz boasts a ‘ natural bay’ and the Atlantic Ocean’s rich Benguela current attracts a healthy spread of birdlife and marinelife. The coastline is beauty and desolation combined. Most remarkable feature of the bleak , often mist wreathed Namib Shoreline is what is known as the Bogenfels, a ruggedly sculpted arched rock that rises nearly 30 m above the Atlantic rollers. The arch – which is the highest coastal rock arch in Southern Africa served as the terminus of a narrow gauge private railway line that ran along the coast, linking the small number of diamond mines of the pre World War 1 Era.

Inland lie the ghost towns of Kolmanskop and Elizabeth Bay, these towns are now covered in sand, once booming and well to do towns of the diamond era they boasted furniture factories, hospitals, shops, public swimming pool and 4 skittle alleys. Kolmanskop is now a photographers paradise and photographers will thoroughly enjoy walking around and photographing this amazing ghost town. The 100 km paved road inland is regarded as one of the country’s most spectacular drives as it passes the Aus Mountains, Koichab Pan and the Sand Sea and rolling plains of the Namib Desert.

There are several Luderitz Hotels and places to stay and all of them compete for the “ Best Seafood Restaurant in Town Award”, if you’ve got a few days there, which you should have, you can decide for yourself which one is best. The wind is an ever present reminder of your fragile existence and precarious location and the hotels offer welcome respite in the form of saunas, indoor pools, sheltered gardens and cosy restaurants.