Quello che mi piace il deserto del Namib e il Sperrgebiet è che, dal momento che nessuno vorrebbe vivere lì per lo stile di vita, ogni struttura artificiale trasporta una parte della storia industriale locale.
I miei quattro giorni a Lüderitz erano molto piacevole e io ora sto in bicicletta torna a Aus e quindi ottiene veramente vicino Sud Africa. Come lascio laCittà fantasma di Kolmanskop, la ferrovia in fase di ristrutturazione ancora corre parallela alla strada B4.
Tempeste di sabbia sono frequenti in questa regione, hoha vissutoa few days ago, and I have met in Lüderitz the guys who move the sand from the road everyday. They have an “office” and machines in front of the airport. With strong winds, sand dunes can move up to 15 meters a day. The railway, not re-opened yet but planned for completion by the end of the year (spoiler: a train reappeared in Lüderitz in November 2014), is also in need of regular maintenance in these conditions. A train bringing supplies derailed recently due to the sand. There are talks about building a 7 km long tunnel to avoid the burden of desanding the railway …
Just after Kolmanskop, twenty kilometers from the coast, I stop at Grasplatz.
Grasplatz is called like that because the place was used, before the railway was built in 1906, to store the grass for the wagon-pulling oxen. I have seen the plans at the Windhoek railway museum.
The Aus-Lüderitz railway was proudly completed in 1906 by the Germans, after only 9 months of work. Quoting a very well documented website, “this railway line is built with concentration camp labour from Shark Island near Lüderitz, without recourse to proper nutrition and medical facilities. The statistics of the railway project is frightening. According to numbers kept in the records of the German Colonial Administration, a total of 2 014 concentration camp prisoners were used for the railway construction between January 1906 and June 1907. From these prisoners 1 359 died while working on the line: a 67% mortality rate. This means that every hundred metres of the railway line from Lüderitz to Aus account for one dead Namibian Shark Island prisoner“. Pictures of the reconstruction in 2002-2004 are qui, and most of the rail I see is from these years.
Ian had also told me that around the road are old forts built by the Germans. So, I decided to walk to any suspicious structure I would spot from the road. Being in the desert, it’s easy to spot artifacts in the landscape, but it takes time to walk until them.
About the German military in this region, I can’t remember if it was for fighting against the local tribes, or during WWI against South Africa. Anyway, from that hill I can still enjoy the views over the Sperrgebiet with more of a bird’s eye. And it’s quite fantastic.
I don’t know if this is the bushman’s candle or not. I was told a plant grows around here, called the bushman’s candle, and can be burnt like a candle (but with a specific caveat, like the smoke is toxic or something else). Indeed, the sarcocaulon has “fleshy branches, covered with wax, [which] are flammable and can even when wet be used as a kindling to light fires“, but I’m well equipped enough not to have had to try it.
A funny example on how Namibia is so wide and so small at the same time, is the picture above. While “in posa” with the self-timer, a car passed with an empty trailer; it’s on the far left of the photo. It’s Steve, the mechanic/station manager of Aus, who I probably will see tomorrow, and who traveled to Lüderitz to drop a broken car.
I finally reach my planned destination for the night, the ruins of the Haalenberg station. From Lüderitz, the stations of Kolmanskop, Grasplatz, Haalenberg and Garub are the only ones of the Aus-Lüderitz line where a structure remains. Tschaukaip is just a sign.
There is no wind, but just in case (there is a “Caution: Hyenas” sign just a kilometer away), I set up my tent inside the ruins: I have 3.5 walls and a roof, it’s not too bad.
Ho chiacchierare un po' con i ferrovieri di stanza qui e poi ammazzare il tempo di pulizia lato interno di tutti i miei link di catena. Durante la notte, io vengo visitato da qualcosa. Non posso dire cosa fosse, probabilmente un Orice gazzella.
Haalenberg è l'unico punto sopra i 120 km di quella strada vuota dove le colline sono così vicina dalla strada. Al mattino, salgo uno di loro, ancora in cerca di questi "forti tedeschi". E infatti, vedo strutture artificiali: non forti, ma trincee e cumuli di pietre. Lo fa apparire come un sistema di difesa. Trovare un proiettile in uno di loro, ma nessuno può dirmi se è una pallottola tedesca da WW1, prima, o un cacciatore dilettante del XXI secolo.
Più tardi oggi, darò a Ian, incontro per caso su quella strada.
Il vento è oggi nella mia schiena! Molto spesso in Namibia, la mattina porta una sorpresa: dopo mi sveglio e camminare la mia tenda, il vento costruisce lentamente mentre mangio e raccogliete la mia roba. Per il momento che io sono sulla sella, posso chiamarlo tailwind o vento contrario e immagino che se la mia giornata sarà una buona o una dura.
Così, a parte gli ultimi 40 km della tempesta di sabbia sul mio modo di Lüderitz, sto avendo un piuttosto fortunato 240 km giro in Sperrgebiet, con tailwind più della metà del tempo.
Un vento contrario in un posto così desolato sarebbe deprimente. Me lo ricordo troppo bene nei dintorni di Tarfaya in Sahara occidentale e la Skeleton Coast.
La mia prossima fermata ferroviaria è la stazione di suggerimento. Ha un edificio fatiscente, due alberi morti e serbatoi di acqua elevato arrugginito. C'è una macchina parcheggiata lì, e questa è la coppia francese che ho incontrato quando lasciando i backpackers a Lüderitz.
Allo stesso tempo arriva un tour in bus. Ho a malapena visto nessuno in un tempo così lungo! Che mi offre l'opportunità di scattare la foto più sorprendente della giornata:
Essi stanno per rovinare mio photoshoot della stazione fatiscente? Non credo. Persone che viaggiano in autobus solitamente abbiano nessuno spazio di tempo e non personale. Lo trovo un peccato, soprattutto in Namibia, dove la maggior parte del paese è a godersi lo spazio infinito. È un po' atmosfera stessa come gli annunci di turismo d'oro-settimana giapponese per "visita Europa in 5 giorni". D'altra parte, per godere veramente che time + spazio meraviglioso della Namibia, un turista ha bisogno di un sacco di tempo e un veicolo (spesso quello che costa un sacco in affitto), allora esso non è una destinazione economica. (E ancora una volta, bicicletta vittorie).
Quando avremo finito di chiacchierare con i due altri francesi, il tour bus è già andato e io sono rimasto solo con il sole e le rovine.
Nulla è realmente cambiato in 100 anni. I pali elettrici e le linee telefoniche sono state sostituite e aggiornate, alcuni alberi sono morti e sono apparsi fotografie a colori. E naturalmente, le nuove guide.
È il momento per me di controllare ciò che è in quelle vasche di rossi. La ruggine ha parzialmente masticato i lati e il Fondoschiena di loro, ma non la scala.
Questi serbatoi sono in realtà più di serbatoi arrugginiti. Erano l'allattamento Lüderitz con acqua, e hanno reso possibile la costruzione della ferrovia nel 1906. A quel tempo, l'unica acqua potabile era una fonte 2 km dalla stazione ferroviaria di suggerimento. Per trasportare l'acqua dalla sorgente fino a questi serbatoi rossi, da cui e quindi ha distribuito fino a Lüderitz, 100 km di distanza, a quanto pare fino al 1990, fu costruita una ferrovia di 2,4 km. Nei suoi primi giorni, Lüderitz ricevuto acqua in nave da città del capo. Non so se questi serbatoi rossi furono attivi fino al 1990, ma ho visto una stazione di pompaggio abbastanza recente 40km da Lüderitz. Le Sito Web Namwaterdice che la pipeline di 120km dalla depressione Koichab fu commissionata nel 2002.
Non ho trovato le rotaie di questa linea di 2,4 km, che Klaus Dierks girato nel 2002qui e ci, ma forse li possiamo indovinare guardando le linee rette sul foto satellitare. Un buon punto su deserti sopra foreste di pioggia, per scopi storici, è che le cose non cambiano e tracce possono durare per anni. Che comprende anche 4 × 4 di guida fuori strada e distruggendo il paesaggio per un secolo.
C'è qualcosa di veramente bello che ho trovato presso il Museo ferroviario di Windhoek: l'orario dei treni nel 1914. Poiché il tedesco sud ovest Namibia non fu sconfitto ancora da Sud Africa, è scritto in tedesco. Vale la pena di nulla che, in primo luogo, i treni avevano un regolare servizio di 100 anni fa, più frequentemente e in luoghi molto remoti rispetto ad oggi. E inoltre, la maggior parte delle stazioni sono oggi abbandonate.
La mia mappa preferita del Museo ferroviario di Windhoek è la ferrovia di concetto tra Namibia e le cascate Victoria. A quel tempo, Namibia era SWA, Botswana era Bechuanaland e Zambia era nord-Rhodesia. Era troppo costoso costruire una ferrovia attraverso il deserto, e comunque i tedeschi furono sconfitti rapidamente in Africa. È, in una scala più piccola, simile agli altri progetti troppo ambiziosi ferroviario degli imperi coloniali: Francia volendo collegare Dakar-Gibutie gli inglesi quasi riuscire nell'edificio i Il Cairo a città del capo ferroviaria.
Era un centinaio di anni fa. Ma, c'è maggior bisogno di questi progetti allo stato attuale che mai. Botswana senza sbocco sul mare è cercando di costruire una ferrovia attraverso la Namibia per esportare i suoi prodotti di data mining, liberandoli dalla dipendenza il Sud Africa. Su scala continentale,Corridoi trans-africana Infine si connettono posti carente cooperazione internazionale. A proposito, il Mappa di nove autostrade dimostra ancora una volta come la giungla del DRC non è compatibile con viaggiare.
C'è una pozza d'acqua e un punto di vista di fronte alla stazione ferroviaria di suggerimento. Sembra fuori luogo... un punto di vista nel Sperrgebiet? Era passato il mio modo di Lüderitz e ora lo pagherà una visita. La pozza d'acqua dovrebbe per ottenere i cavalli selvaggi di suggerimento.
This part of the Namib is home to about 150 feral horses (276 at the 2001 count before a severe drought). Nobody can accurately tell why there are here.
Ci sono various theories.
One plausible theory relates to the German occupation of South West Africa a large number of horses were needed for the cavalry and an eccentric German nobleman, Baron Hans-Heinrich von Wolf, set up a horse breeding station at his outlandish castle, Duwisib, on the edge of the desert. Once the Baron went off to the first world war in Europe nobody looked after the stable of more than 300 horses and after his death herds of them ran wild, roaming the veld around Duwisib until 1950. It is possible that some of them wandered the 150 kilometres south- westward to the water at Garub.
It is likely, too, that some of the feral horses originated from the Schutztruppe mounts, as well as from the those belonging to a South African Expeditionary Force that took control of the Lüderitz- Keetmanshoop line during the First World War. Another theory is that a ship carrying thoroughbreds from Europe to Australia that ran aground near the mouth of the Orange River. The strongest horses could have reached the shore and found their way to the Garub plains.
I can’t imagine the last theory being true, since the mouth of the Orange river has perennial freshwater and a lot more grass than the Sperrgebiet. And it’s better for my traveling eyes to meet abandoned German horses. Whichever their origin is, it’s still incredible that tamed horses abandoned into the hostile Namib managed to survive.
A few minutes after I show up at the viewpoint, eating something in the shade (yes, shade!), I am lucky to see two of these wild horses approaching. Their regular paths are clearly visible in the sand. My lack of telephoto lens pushes me to walk down to the waterhole, where they don’t seem as scared by my presence as gemsboks or ostriches would be.
The slope up to Aus is tough, and I feel the significant temperature change when I approach 1400. Luckily I still have a bit of a tailwind, and I am confident I will reach Aus before night.
And after meeting Ian on the slope, I reach my destination for the day just in time. It’s rare enough that I make a plan to end the day somewhere, and that I manage to make the plan happen even while stopping often.
As in any town planned by apartheid South Africans, there is a township clearly separated from the town. Even for that tiny place of Aus …
Steve, of the Aus gas station, is still as nice as on my first visit. He gives me a discount for the campsite and lets me buy a beer. Buying alcohol in Namibia is prohibited from Saturday 1 pm until Monday.
While having camp-stove dinner with Israeli tourists, unsure if they should introduce themselves as Italians because of the mediatized ongoing Gaza conflict, I finalize another last minute route plan change. I won’t be taking the road to Keetmanshoop, and then visit the Fish River Canyon, but will instead go south from here to Rosh Pinah, visit a mine where Ian got me a contact, and ride along the Orange river, apparently a great scenic road. Thus, if I want to see the Fish River Canyon, the largest canyon in Africa, I will have to add a 4-day loop just before crossing to South Africa. I will see how I feel then.
The best asset of Aus, from my point of view, is that all four roads leaving Aus are downhill. Indeed, the small town sits at an altitude of 1500 m, at the edge of the Grande scarpata.
I follow the C13, a paved road heading south straight to the South African border. The 3 km leaving town uphill are then followed by a 50 km stretch, during which I barely pedal!
Looking at my GPS, it seems that the slope is in average 1% downhill. The good tar surface and the strong tailwind make it very pleasant, as I am left to enjoy the bare landscape and the ostriches without producing much effort. As usual, there is almost no traffic, and the mountains and plateaus surrounding me seem shaped by water and erosion.
The nice blue sky makes time go by fast. I could cycle the 170 km to Rosh Pinah within the same day if I had left early. But I am taking it easy and two days will work fine, if the wind doesn’t change sides.
Note to future cyclists: At the “Rosh Pinah: 90” road sign, there is a ruin by the road. Three walls that would do to pitch my tent and remain sheltered from the wind. But it’s still early for me, so I move on.
At the end of the day, I have gone 100 km away from Aus. It’s a good distance, but I am still surrounded by bare landscape. I decide to push until 120 km, remembering that Steve said there is a windmill at KM 120. If there is a windmill, there is also probably a concrete tank nearby, or even a farm, where I could sleep. Also, one of my maps indicates “Witputz cattle post” there, at the crossroads between C13 and D463, so I am hopeful to find ruins, and set up my tent sheltered from the wind.
An extra 20 km to cycle means I will get there after sunset, with very little light, and I won’t be able to look in the bush for a good camping spot. So there’d better be something there.
I reach Witputz (also spelled Witputs), and spot two windmills, but nothing else. It’s dark and I am not too surprised that even a bare crossroads has a name. Because of the windmills, there must be animals and a farm around here, but it could be in any direction, and maybe 5 km, 10 km or 15 km away. Too risky to look for, on unmarked dirt tracks, by night.
The gravel D463 is heading east, right into the Fish River canyon, and it feels like another scenic road with nothing on it for 100 km. I venture on it to camp away from the C13, paved and as busy as, maybe, 50 cars a day? And then, it’s jackpot! Just a kilometer away, I discern white buildings in the dark. It looks like an abandoned farming complex, with many buildings. Once again, that’s mylast chance at the last moment!
All the buildings look nice and clean, and they are all empty. It doesn’t really look like a farm, but more like a police office or a workshop, with a car inspection pit. I have a choice of 10 rooms, and I pick the one with a door and the best viewpoint against visitors. I don’t think there is much wildlife around, but one never knows. It’s a perfect stop for cyclists! (the main gate chain is so rusty it can be opened and closed with little pressure).
When I leave it in the morning, I see a sign that I had missed at night: Namibia Diamond Mining Company Ltd. I didn’t know there was diamond mining in the area. And I can’t find anything online that would tell me a bit more about where I slept.
And now, just 50 km away from Rosh Pinah, I will get there early and hopefully visit the Zinc mine underground.
Is it possible to use some of your photos for an informitve youtube video? I can credit you, of course, please let me know! 🙂
fyi, i was in Luderitz a few weeks ago, and the railway is still not operational. Everyone that I spoke with laughed at the concept that it would be running any time soon, despite numerous promises that it would go live before the end of 2016.
Oh shame. Elastic timelines …
I’ve seen your pics, at least you were lucky enough to go until Pomona!
Hi JB, thank you for this very interesting series of blogs, they have been a great read … and I’ve still got many countries to go.
This particular blog brings together two things I take great interest in, exploring and railways!
One thing to note is that this particular railway (Aus – Luderitz) is being completely rebuilt with a pre-fabricated ballast-less rail system called Tubular Track, as you saw under construction at the Luderitz end. So the work done earlier to repair the line using the traditional ballast approach, as seen in your photos around Haalenberg and Garub, will eventually be replaced by the type of rail seen in your photos at the start of this blog. This type of rail is better suited to desert conditions as desert sand gets mixed into ballast over time and alters its reaction to loads passing over which leads to derailments. More information on the contractor’s website http://www.tubulartrack.co.za (disclaimer: I have no association with that company).
I started reading your blogs from the southern Angola section through to your return to Europe, and now I will go back to your entry into Africa – I am looking forward to reading about your experiences up north.
Thanks for the info!
It apparently already took ages to restore this railway, so I hope they will be able to make use of it before replacing the every beam …