Lüderitz all the way in the south

This time, we went on a long drive to almost the southernmost part of Namibia, Lüderitz, from Sossusvlei. On the way there, you pass by Helmeringhausen, a village with, according to Wikipedia, 8 buildings and exactly 11 permanent residents! ;) Then you continue towards 'Aus'. This gravel path road is the worst of all! The first 30 kilometers are mostly great, you can easily drive at 100 km/h! But at least once per kilometer, there's a huge pothole and you have to slow down to 20 km/h to avoid wrecking the car and everything in it! So you accelerate to 100 km/h for 30 kilometers, then brake to 20 km/h, accelerate to 100 km/h, brake to 20 km/h! It wasn't that bad on any other section of the well over 3,000 kilometers I drove!

But luckily, from Aus to Lüderitz, it was only on paved roads! Lüderitz is named after a prominent merchant from colonial times who acquired land here and thus helped establish German South West Africa. The entire city is built on rocks, which looks very bizarre! The famous landmark here is the church, which sits high up on one of the rocks. Here I met some German tourists who recommended a very nice campsite on a peninsula surrounded by the sea and the harbor. It was beautifully located among all the rocks. Without knowledge of the place, you would certainly not find it, as you have to pass through the industrial harbor from the city center to get there. No tourist goes further and sees what's behind there. I walked around a bit, reached the pretty yacht harbor, had a great sundowner and had dinner before heading back to my campsite.

The next morning, I visited the ghost town of "Kolmannskuppe", located 11 kilometers from Lüderitz, which was a bustling town during colonial times. There was a bakery, a school, and even a pub with a bowling alley! Today, most of the buildings are just ruins and are gradually being more and more covered by desert sand. It looks really spooky!

Then it was time to continue on the penultimate stage, to shorten the way to Windhoek, towards Mariental.