Luderitz is a weird place. Imagine a town full of Germans stuck on one of the remotest parts of Africa's Atlantic coast. They speak German, look German and even wear lederhosen.

You have to really want to come here. It's a four or five hour bus trip from a town called Keetmanshoop (pronounced, oddly enough, keht-mahns-WOOP). And even Keetmanshoop is in the absolute middle of nowhere. In fact, all of Namibia is in the middle of nowhere... it's one of the thinnest-populated countries on the continent.

The Port at Luderitz

Apart from the bizarre collection of German relics (both human and otherwise) here, the big attraction is the ghost town left over from the late 19th century diamond rush.

"Huge swaths of the country."
Luderitz is surrounded on both sides by restricted diamond areas... huge swaths of the country owned jointly by the government and the DeBeers diamond company. They've been mining here for over a hundred years and for some reason completely abandoned a whole town built for company employees.

It's called Kolmanskop and if you think of an American old west ghost town you wouldn't be too far from the mark. It had a theater, school, hospital and dozens of big private homes. It's in the middle of the desert and is now being covered over in sand.

The hour-long tour was a bit lackluster, as the elderly German lady seemed to belong more as an exhibit than guide. Recall your high school librarian's tour

Sand Reclaims the Ghost Town

of the card catalog... only add more sand, enormous rosy glasses, and age splotches.

"It's utterly quiet and a bit eerie."
But the town was kinda cool. The cliche is to call it haunting, but that may be a bit much. I wound up alone in the hospital, where entire rooms are nearly filled with sand blowing in the windows. It's utterly quiet and a bit eerie. The only sound is your own ears ringing.

After a seven mile walk, each way from Luderitz to the ghost town, we're headed back to Keetmanshoop to continue on to Mariental. It's a completely forgettable town between here and Windhoek. No tourists stop there, but a friend of Matt's wants us to check in with a former student of hers from when she taught here in Namibia.