Day 6 Luderitz and the Wild Horses of Garub
The drive from Aus to Luderitz is on a mellow B4 road that
winds its way through territory that makes the term “trackless waste” a
bit too tropical and inviting to describe this region.
However, along the route there is a highlight that we found
way cool. (Do people say “way cool”
anymore?) The Wild Horses of Garub. Theories abound as to their origin, but
current consensus is that they are descended from the horses of South African
troops stationed nearby in WW I (The War to End All Wars) and were frightened
off by fire from a German aircraft, certainly piloted by Baron von Something.
Regardless, they have adapted to the xeriscape and through
efforts by nice people, there is a watering hole at Garub, a former rail
station. They have also constructed a
hide to view these critters, so we pitched up and checked them out for the
better part of an hour. We were the only
tourists curious (foolish) enough to take advantage of this opportunity to see
wild horses in the wild, which is the best place to see wild horses, of course.
I hadn’t thought about it before, but in reading about these
horses, I learned that domesticating horses destroys the family unit and the
social structure of horses, alpha males and all that. So, protecting these wild horses is a very
eco-friendly, back to nature kind of thing to do.
Luderitz appears like a mirage as you descend from a rocky
ledge. It spreads out along the cliffs
circling the natural harbor, one filled with fishing boats, sail boats, and
today two large container ships off-loading.
We were struck by the bright colors of the houses and buildings, and, as
we had prepared for from our Lonely Planet guide, the circa 1900 German
architecture.
There is only one other port on the coast, way up there in Swakopmund,
a week or so away, so Luderitz was the natural place to ship out all those
freaking diamonds they were finding lying on the ground! Literally!
But the undertaking was no easy one. First, water had to be shipped in via ships,
of course, all the way from Cape Town, some hellacious number of km down the
coast. Shipping in your water! And wood.
And glass. And metal items. And every freaking thing, even rocks! Though this area has little else, two things
it does have are sand and rocks. However,
neither was suitable for making concrete or as foundations of buildings. I keep trying to do the math, and all that I
come up with is that those diamonds must have been bringing in one hefty profit
to make it all come out economically.
We walked the town, a task that takes less than an hour, and
popped into the supermarket, got some cheese, crackers, fruit, and beverages
and headed for the harbor to have our picnic lunch. Nice.
Mimi is such a good cook!
