Kolmanskop is the small ghost town in the desert, which you have probably seen photographed before, about 12 km outside Luderitz. The diamond mines were abandoned about 70 years ago, and since then the little village has been abandoned to the desert. The old houses are now just skeletons over-run by the shifting dunes. The ghostly, abandoned look of the place has attracted many photographers over the years, and so we followed suit. The town is on a hillside facing East, and so at sunrise the first rays of the sun provide interesting views throughout the town. This is why we had to be up at 5, and on site by about 6:15 am. The photographers were Damon, Kevin and Curtis, and I was the driver.
Waytag at the top of Kolmanskop overlooking the town
The rest of the family joined us for the official tour at 9:30 am, and after that we continued wandering the dusty streets till about noon.
After Kolmanskop we drove north of Luderitz to Agate Beach. You are supposed to find agate stones on the beach there. None of us are 100% certain what agate is, so we don't know if we found agate on the beach, but we did find a lot of pretty sea shells. Clinton reckons we did, so I'll take his word for it. I did NOT get the Fortuner stuck this time, so it was a successful beach-pedition all round.
It was now approaching mid-afternoon, so we decided we should go to the coffee shop around the corner from our accommodation - Diaz Coffee Shop. Our first failure for the day - please skip Diaz Coffee shop. The girls are certain that the cakes there were bought 3 days ago at the local Spar.
Next stop - Diaz point. This is one of the places where Bartholomew Diaz placed a cross claiming the land for the Dutch. He was here in 1488. There is also supposed to be a light house and a coffee shop at Diaz point. Well, there is a light house, but it is rather plain, and really does not appeal to photographers. And the coffee shop is no more. Anyway, the Cross marking the spot claimed by Diaz was there on a high rock over the ocean, so we walked up there for a view of the ocean. There were a few seals about, evidenced by the sound (some barking like dogs and some sounding like sheep) and by the distinctive aroma of seals.
We also found another geocache here, so we dropped off one of the trackables that we had picked up earlier in our journey.
By this time we were all running out of steam, so we returned to Haus Sandrose to recuperate. Janete made some flapjacks, which we had with options of chocolate ice-cream, melted chocolate sauce or grated chocolate shavings. Or cinnamon and sugar. Death by chocolate! Then we relaxed till dinner time at the Restaurant at the local Protea Hotel. Dinner was interesting - dodging all the items on the menu that were 'out of stock'. But once we ordered food they actually had it was quite good.
Wow,6000km and still having an amazing time! I googled The agate stone and found 2 entries .The first is that if found it can rid an insomniac of their problem and the second is the last time one was found was in 4BC. --Keep Looking :-)
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Yo Assie - you found some odd references! :)
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We did find some oddly colored stones, and perhaps if they were all polished up they might be something like this...
Patrick.