Before we even began talking about planning a trip to Africa, I had been pinning images of the abandoned, sand-filled buildings in the diamond-mining ghost town of Kolmanskop to my “Wanderlust” board on Pinterest.
Kolmanskop was constructed as the headquarters of the Consolidated Diamond Mines and, during its heyday, featured an auditorium, casino, and even a bowling alley. Diamonds were the town’s lifeblood; in fact, the area surrounding Kolmanskop was so flush with diamonds that workers crawled around on their hands and knees, just plucking diamonds off the ground.
A drop in diamond sales following WWI, along with the discovery of even richer diamond fields to the south, however, led to Kolmanskop’s eventual decline and by the mid-1950’s, Kolmanskop had been completely abandoned.1
And that is when the sand dunes moved in, pouring in through the windows and doors of the deserted buildings and swallowing stairs. The effect is simultaneously beautiful and eerie, and exploring these buildings sent my imagination into overdrive. The setting was made all the more interesting by the fact that the town was covered in the dull gray of a coastal fog when we arrived, which later burned off to leave a brilliantly sunny day by the time we left.
We ended up with so many interesting pictures from Kolmanskop, but here, in no particular order, is a sampling of some of our favorites:
Although Kolmanskop was the day’s undisputed highlight, there were plenty of other sights that piqued our interest. Even the drive to and from Kolmanskop was interesting, filled with beautiful scenery and occasional ostrich sightings.
On our way there and back, we even spotted some wild horses that live in the area.
Right after we left Kolmanskop, we stopped at Diaz Point, so named because Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias erected a cross there in 1488 on his way back from the Cape of Good Hope. Seeing where the Namib Desert meets the Atlantic Ocean (complete with lighthouse) was a bit surreal, and we got lucky and saw tons of flamingoes and seals.
Later, we lunched in the seaside town of Lüderitz at a restaurant called Ritzi’s overlooking the harbor.
Finally, we returned to our campsite at Klein-Aus Vista and set off on a hike to watch the sunset. We were running behind schedule, so it was less of a hike and more of a run, but Marc and I managed to scramble up the rocks surrounding the campsite in time to watch the sun set over the beautiful Namibian landscape.
1 Diamonds are still in the ground surrounding Kolmanskop, however, and thus its surrounding area – the Sperrgebiet (Forbidden Area) National Park – is off-limits for visiting without a permit.
