EXCURSIONS FURTHER AFIELD:
The thermal baths of Ai-Ais are situated in the Fish River Canyon (about 45 minutes by car). There you can enjoy a therapeutic bath or go for a short hike into the canyon (remember to take enough drinking water).
WARMBAD:
The village of Warmbad (about 2 hours by car) also boasts a bath which is fed by a warm spring. An old church is reminiscent of missionary times and several buildings in the colonial style are the remains of German rule. You can visit a small museum where the focus is on the Bondelswart Nama, the population group which once inhabited the entire area between the Fish River Canyon and Namibia’s eastern border. Warmbad was, and still is, the main seat of the Bondelswart.
NAMIBIA'S SOUTH:
From Sight to Sight through Namibia’s South
Whether canyon or quiver tree, Sossusvlei in the sand sea of the Namib or dunes extending over hundreds of kilometres in the Kalahari, whether saurian fossils or Wild Horses, mission church or ghost town – Namibia’s south has a lot to offer to tourists. The attractions listed below roughly follow the course of the Gondwana Desert Route, which is clockwise along the horseshoe-shaped route through the south.
The KALAHARI covers a wide stretch of land in eastern Namibia. The tall red dunes, which run from north-west to south-east in parallel chains over hundreds of kilometres, are the most typical feature. In contrast to the Namib, grasses, shrubs and acacias grow on the dunes and in the dune valleys. Some clay and salt pans that fill with water after sufficient rains have formed between the dunes. Game is abundant in the Kalahari.
HARDAP DAM near Mariental is the largest artificial lake in the country. It dams up the Fish River, which in its lower course, not far from where it flows into the Gariep (Orange) River, has shaped the Fish River Canyon. Hardap Dam and the surrounding nature reserve with various species of game (including Black Rhino) is a popular greenbelt recreation area for water sports, angling and bird-watching.
The crater of the BRUKKAROS MASSIF near Berseba looks like an extinct volcano. It is assumed, however, that it is the result of a subterranean explosion which caused a hollow under the surface to cave in. Brukkaros can be ascended from the southern rim of the crater. A path leads into the crater and to the ruins of a former research station, located at about 1,590 m above sea level.
The quiver tree is the symbol of the south. In earlier times the San used the branches to make quivers for their arrows – hence the name. Around Keetmanshoop there are several groves of this type of aloe. 'QUIVER TREE FORESTS' worth a visit can be found at farm Garas, 20 km north of Keetmanshoop on the B 1 tar road, or at farm Gariganus, 20 km north-east of Keetmanshoop on the C 17. All the quiver tree groves are located in an area in which large chunks of greyish black dolerite rock are stacked upon one another to form veritable sculpture galleries. At farm Gariganus the site has been named ‘Giants’ Playground’.
The quiver tree grove in the area of the 'MESAURUS FOSSIL SITE', 42 km north-east of Keetmanshoop on the road to Koës, is less known but no less impressive. There are also piled up ashlars of dolerite rock, as at the Giants’ Playground. Even more impressive is the fossil site in this area: fossilised skeletons, about 50 cm long, of the Mesosaurus tenuidens are imprinted in slate. The reptile, which vaguely resembles a crocodile, lived about 260 million years ago in a huge lake which then covered large parts of southern Africa.
The town of KEETMANSHOOP is the administrative centre of the south. Several buildings from colonial times have been preserved in the centre of the town, including the railway station (1907/08), the Imperial Post Office (1910) which now serves as a visitors’ information centre, and a church of the Rhenish Missionary Society with a small museum where photos and items from the early years of the last century are on display.
With a capacity of about 69 million cubic metres, NAUTE DAM south-west of Keetmanshoop is the country’s third largest dam. It is also a bird sanctuary. In the nature reserve on the southern shores there are several beautiful inlets for swimming.
The FISH RIVER CANYON in the lower course of the ephemeral river with the same name is one of southern Namibia’s main attractions. It cuts through the seemingly enormous scenery of the Nama Karoo which is criss-crossed by the courses of other ephemeral rivers, lined by vegetation. Characteristic plants are euphorbia, quiver trees and small shrubs. Between the main lookout point at Hobas and the hot springs at Ai-Ais in the south the canyon is at its most impressive. This 80 km section of the Fish River is accessible on a hiking trail (several days, minimum 3 participants, booking essential, medical certificate required) which is said to be among the most beautiful ones in southern Africa.
State-owned AIS-AIS HOT SPRINGS RESORT is located at the lower end of the Fish River Canyon. The very modest thermal bath is fed by a hot spring. There is an outside pool and an indoor pool with Jacuzzi.
Situated 30 km south of Karasburg and away from the main routes, the little hamlet of WARMBAD was founded in the vicinity of a hot spring. There is a museum on the history of the Bondelswart Nama which covers topics like the work of the first missionaries who started their task in 1806, the uprising against the German colonial power in 1903 or the struggle against South African rule in 1920. There are also the remains of camel stables from colonial times, a mission house, a church and an old cemetery. The hot spring is still bubbling away and fills a swimming pool shaded by trees.
THE GARIEP (ORANGE) RIVER: forms the border between Namibia and South Africa over a distance of 500 km. It bears water all year round and flows into the Atlantic Ocean at Oranjemund. The river is only suitable for small boats. Guided canoe tours for enjoying nature sustained by the river start from the little hamlet of Noordoewer. Ai-Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park spreads out north and south of the Gariep.
A road along the Gariep (Orange) leads to the mining village of Rosh Pinah (zinc) and on to Aus. An alternative route is the road north of the Fish River Canyon via Seeheim to Aus.
BETHANIEN, north of the tar road between Keetmanshoop and Aus, boasts a faithfully restored former mission church (1859) and the replica of the first stone house (1815) which was built there. An exhibition about Bethanien’s missionary history can be viewed in the tiny Schmelen House – named after the missionary with the same name. The house of Nama leader Joseph Fredericks has also been preserved. This is where Fredericks and Heinrich Vogelsang (authorized representative of Adolf Lüderitz, a merchant in Bremen) signed the bill for the sale of the bay of Angra Pequeña on 1 May 1883 – it was the prelude to German colonial rule in South West Africa (proclaimed in 1884).
East of Aus the remains of a POW CAMP can be found which was set up in 1915 for German soldiers by the South African forces. In Aus itself there is an Information Centre for visitors – with diagrams on the Wild Horses of the Namib at Garub (20 km west of Aus), the unique flora of the area (Succulent Karoo, Nama Karoo and Dune Namib) as well as other fields of interest - such as transport, mining, Karakul breeding and resistance against Apartheid.
Horses from a nearby stud farm, the German colonial forces and the South African army, which were dispersed or abandoned during the First World War, conquered the edge of the Namib as their habitat. In the course of more than 90 years the Wild Horses of the Namib have adapted to the harsh conditions. They can be watched at the drinking trough at Garub, 20 km west of Aus, slightly north of the tar road to Lüderitz.
LUDERITZ still boasts numerous witnesses to its history of more than a century. Among the best-known sights are the magnificent Jugendstil buildings from the early years, like imposing Goerke Haus and neighbouring Felsenkirche (Church on the Rock). The modern Waterfront includes a Yacht Club and is the starting point for boat tours to the small islands off the Atlantic coast. The clear ocean water, by the way, provides the culinary delicacies, for which Lüderitz is known as well: fresh lobsters and oysters, depending on the season. Out-of-town excursions are to 'Diaz Point' where Portuguese seafarers erected a stone cross for a landmark in the 15th century, or to the Restricted Area with deserted diamond settlements like Pomona or natural beauty spots like Großer Bogenfels (rock arch).
The diamond town of KOLMANSKUPPE, founded in 1908, has turned into a ghost town long since. The grand houses of yesteryear have partly been reclaimed by the Namib Desert. Various buildings, like the old ice factory, the butchery, the skittle alley and the general-purpose gymnasium, are included in a guided tour. There is also a small museum and a permanent exhibition on the mining and processing of diamonds.
The TIRAS MOUNTAINS are located about 50 km north of Aus. The D 707 - dubbed the most beautiful byroad in the country - runs in a wide semi-circle around the south-western flank, with the red sand sea of the Dune Namib on the one side and the solitary reddish-brown Tiras Mountains on the other.
The fortified manor house DUWISIB sits on the slope of the wide and truly beautiful valley of a seasonal river west of Maltahöhe. It was built in 1908 by an eccentric horse breeder, Hansheinrich von Wolf, and his American wife Jayta. Castle Duwisib has been preserved relatively well. The splendour of its heyday is still apparent, among others, in the great hall, the dining hall and a chamber furnished in the Biedermeier style.
Socially minded members of the Maltahöhe community have established the 'OEHERA ART' market where high-quality souvenirs can be bought and local Nama craftspeople can be watched at work. Tours of Maltahöhe by donkey-cart are also on offer. It is highly recommendable to attend a performance by the school choir which is bursting with joie de vivre and vocal power. Traditional Nama songs and dances are performed by prior arrangement.
SOSSUSVLEI is one of Namibia’s most impressive sights. The famous clay pan is enclosed by the endless red and yellow sand sea of the Dune Namib. For photographers the desert landscape offers the most amazing contrasts, colours and shapes in the early morning and late afternoon light. Climbing a dune should definitely be part of a visit. Sossusvlei can only be reached from the national park’s entrance gate at Sesriem. Sesriem Canyon, a gorge of about 2 km in length, is also in the vicinity of Sesriem. 'Ses rieme', or six thongs of an ox wagon and team were once tied together to scoop water from the bottom of the gorge.
The rugged massif of the NAUKLUFT MOUNTAINS fits into the line of the Great Escarpment, the clear-cut border between the lower-lying Dune Namib and the uplands in Namibia’s interior. The Naukluft with its numerous springs and its diverse fauna and flora is very suitable for hiking tours. The 'Naukluft Trail' is regarded as one of the most strenuous but also one of the most beautiful hiking trails in southern Africa.
Farm Neuras in the barren, hilly country east of the Naukluft Mountains is blessed with vigorously gushing springs which are utilized for irrigating vines. The small winery can be toured by prior arrangement.
The petrol station and garage as well as the farm store and café in Solitaire have acquired cult status. Until just a few years ago they were literally hidden away in the great nowhere. With tourism on the rise traffic through Solitaire has clearly increased as well, but with a little luck it is still possible to get hold of a helping of the apple crumble for which Solitaire is world-famous.
GONDWANA - JOURNEY THROUGH THE DESERT LAND:
"I never imagined that there is so much variety to the desert." This exclamation is often heard from tourists who have been to the southern and western parts of Namibia for the first time. It is a region where four desert systems overlap. Small wonder therefore, that travellers are captivated by the incredible vastness of the scenery and its strikingly unspoilt quality, by the stark beauty, the sublime solitude and the almost deafening silence. By the amazing diversity of the desert areas:
the gravel plains, the dry river-beds, the inselbergs and sand-seas. And they are captivated by the profusion of life, be it plant or animal, which over the millennia has adapted to the harsh conditions in the most amazing, resourceful ways.
The fascination is followed by questions of how and why things came to be like this. In the private nature parks of the Gondwana Desert Collection visitors have the opportunity to experience the desert as closely as can be and have all their questions answered.
Four Desert Systems:
Namibia, the land of deserts, is affected by two major meteorological systems. The Inter-tropical Convergence Zone feeds in moist air from the north, but dry air from the Subtropical High Pressure Zone pushes the moist air back. This is the cause of Namibia's dazzling blue skies and hot, dry air. Humidity is less than 20 per cent during most of the year, while average temperatures can soar to over 40° C in summer. Evaporation rates are extremely high, typically around 2,000 to 2,500 mm per year - which exceeds rainfall by up to 150 times. When rain does fall it usually comes in summer during brief but vehement thunderstorms. Rainfalls are also highly variable and unpredictable, with an error margin of between 50 and 90 percent.
Namibia is the driest country south of the Sahara. Its only perennial rivers form the southern and northern border, with roughly 1,700 km between them. All other rivers and drainage lines in the country are ephemeral. They merely flow for a few days per year.
But despite the aridity Namibia is a country of huge contrasts, rich diversity and abundant wildlife. It is the diversity of its geology, landscapes and ecosystems that make Namibia the unique and precious country that it is, both ecologically and culturally.
Namibia boasts no less than four different desert systems:
1. The Namib, the driest of them all, forms a narrow strip along the
Atlantic coast. Based on the vegetation it is divided into three main
components:
1.1 The southern Dune Namib is a shifting sea of unvegetated sand
with the highest dunes in the world.
1.2 The central gravel plains with the odd inselberg are characterised
by an amazing diversity of species and (micro) habitats.
1.3 Rugged mountains and valleys are the main features of the north.
Numerous large ephemeral rivers have cut through the hilly terrain on
their way to the coast.
One of the characteristics of the Namib is the coastal fog which
provides some moisture for this hyper-arid belt next to the Atlantic
Ocean. The fog sustains an enormously diverse and specifically
adapted plant and animal life.
2. The Succulent Karoo is a coastal belt which stretches from southern
Namibia into South Africa. Its very low precipitation is mostly limited to
winter. The vegetation is dominated by succulents and other smaller
plants which store their water mainly in the leaves and stems.
3. The Nama Karoo takes up most of southern central Namibia. From
about 120 km south of Windhoek it reaches all the way down into
South Africa. In the west it forms a wedge between the Namib and the
Succulent Karoo and it stretches into the Southern Kalahari in the east.
The narrow tract of Nama Karoo that extends into southern Angola is the transition between the Namib and the dry savannah of the interior. The Nama Karoo is subdivided into six different vegetation types, all
of which are characterised by dwarf shrubs and scattered grasslands.
4. The Arid Savannah of the Southern Kalahari is characterised by red
sand which forms long parallel chains of partly vegetated dunes. The
dune valleys are dominated by grasses, while trees such as camel
thorn and shepherd's bush grow on the lower and middle slopes of the
dunes. The crests are usually exposed as red caps without or very
little plant-growth. Because of the deep sand there is hardly any
surface water, not even immediately after the sporadic rainfalls.
What is a Desert?
There are several different definitions for 'desert'. The simplest, but not very useful one is based on rainfall only. The 500 mm isohyet is applied and broken down as follows:
Up to 100 mm – 'extremely arid deserts' (the Namib, Succulent Karoo, parts of the Nama Karoo);
100 - 250 mm – 'arid deserts' (the remainder of the Nama Karoo and most of the southern Kalahari);
250 - 500 mm – 'semi-arid deserts' (the remainder of the southern Kalahari and most of the rest of Namibia!). Over 90 percent of Namibia fit into this definition of a desert - but it is hardly appropriate. If annual rainfalls are the criterion, then less than 250 mm is the quantity that defines a desert more aptly.
Another definition looks at the 'water deficit': the ratio of evaporation and rainfall. In the Namib and Succulent Karoo, water loss through evaporation exceeds rainfall by a factor of at least 25 times. In the Nama Karoo the deficit factor is about 15 times more and in the southern Kalahari about 12 times. By contrast, it is about eightfold in the semi-arid savannah system, e.g. around Windhoek, while it is about fivefold in the woodlands of the north-east where annual rainfall is around 500 mm. A water deficit factor of more than 10 is a suitable benchmark for defining 'deserts'.
A third definition of a desert is "... a water-controlled ecosystem with poor, irregular and largely unpredictable water inputs ..." (Professor Imanuel Noy-Meir in ‘The Living Deserts of Southern Africa’, Lovegrove 1993). Looking at all of the above definitions there is no doubt that all four of Namibia's desert systems fit into the category of hyper-arid and arid climatic zones. With their exposed, varied geology and diverse plant and animal life they are four very different deserts and very much alive
Game edged out:
The creatures of the different ecosystems have adapted to the harsh conditions of the desert in various ingenious ways. This is also true for the first people who conquered this habitat – the San (Bushmen). As hunter-gatherers they followed their prey in small family groups. They lived in complete harmony with nature, or, in today's terminology, they utilised their scarce natural resources in a sustainable manner.
This changed abruptly when Europeans started to arrive in southern Africa. From about 1800 onwards hunters from the Cape region crossed the Gariep (Orange River) and during the following decades wiped out many animal species in southern Namibia, including Giraffe, Hippo, Elephant and Rhino. The Quagga was hunted to total extinction. However, worse was to come for the delicate ecosystems of the arid landscapes when European settlers moved into the region. Worried about their small livestock they killed even the smaller predators, like Hyena or Jackal, while their sometimes extensive livestock farming damaged the natural plant cover.
Against this background it becomes clear how imperious it is, especially in southern Namibia, to return to a sustainable utilisation of the land and its natural resources. This does not imply recultivation of the Sans' way of life, because then the number of inhabitants in the south would have to be reduced drastically. It rather means to use sufficiently large and suitable areas for changing from farming over to tourism. With tourism growing in leaps and bounds since Namibia gained independence in 1990, it has become increasingly evident that game-keeping and hospitality generate much more income and create many more jobs than farming.
A Park in each Desert:
It is this very consideration on which the three-pillar-concept of the Gondwana Desert Collection is based. Income derived from tourism is used to finance nature conservation measures, which in turn increase the area's attraction to visitors. By providing tourist accommodation and activities, jobs and career opportunities for local people are created.
In Gondwana Cañon Park at the Fish River Canyon, which by now covers an area of 1,120 km², this concept has been implemented successfully since 1996.
In December 2004 another three parks were added:
Gondwana Kalahari Park on the 100 km² farming area of former Anib Lodge, about 30 km north-east of Mariental; Gondwana Namib Park (100 km²), taking up the area of former Namib Restcamp (or Petrified Dune Lodge) with the 'fossilised dunes' of the protomorphic Namib, about 60 km north of Sesriem/ Sossusvlei; and Gondwana Sperrgebiet Rand Park (510 km²) on the eastern fringe of the Restricted Area near Aus.
In the four parks of the Gondwana Desert Collection guests can get acquainted with all four of Namibia's desert systems and their own characteristic variety of scenery, plants and animals:
- The Kalahari in Gondwana Kalahari Park with the new Kalahari Anib
- Lodge
- the Nama Karoo in Gondwana Cañon Park with Cañon Lodge, Cañon
- Village, Cañon Roadhouse and Cañon Mountain Camp
- the Succulent Karoo in Gondwana Sperrgebiet Rand Park with Eagle's
- Nest Lodge, Desert Horse Inn, Geisterschlucht Camp and Campsite
- and the Namib in Gondwana Namib Park with the new Namib Desert
- Lodge and the upcoming Namib Dune Lodge.
The parks are linked by the Gondwana Desert Route which has the shape of a horseshoe; central marketing and bookings are handled by the Gondwana Travel Centre.
Why the name Gondwana? Gondwana was the ancient southern super-continent which aeons ago split into South America and Africa and thus contributed to the formation of the Fish River Canyon and the Kalahari Basin. Further disintegration into South America and Antarctica changed the ocean currents. It brought forth the cold Benguela Current along Namibia's coast, without which the Succulent Karoo and the Namib would not exist. Hence the name Gondwana represents all of Namibia's deserts. And at the same time the realisation that humanity does not own the lands and waters of this planet, but only inhabits them temporarily and should therefore treat them with responsible care. |
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