Luderitz

The Pacific Princess “sailed” into Luderitz harbour about seven AM. By 7:45 it was tying up to the dock. It was our first look at Namibia. Luderitz had a population of 12,537 in 2011 and did not make it into the top ten by population. Namibia’s population was estimated at 2.6 million in 2017. Namibia is on the East coast of Africa. Angola is on its northern boundary, Botswana is on the east with South Africa which is also on its south.

The port of Luderitz grew from its initial beginning as a trading place for seal and whale hunters to a port for diamond miners. In 1909, with the discovery of diamonds, the population grew rapidly. Within 10 years the shallow rocky harbour was not suitable anymore and diamond mining moved farther south. The De Beers company still has business and property interests in Luderitz. The business is a part of the Namibian government and operates under the name NAMDEB.

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Another partnership with De Beers is Debmarine, Namibia. They have permits and ships to drill for diamonds on the ocean floor. Diamonds are washed down the rivers and out to the ocean where coastal currents carry them northward along the coast.

Our guide met us at the dock and led us on a morning tour through the town. The high point of the tour was to be the German Lutheran Church on the top of the hill.

At the first stop, we were reminded of how important water management is to the community. At one point the water was rationed at two pails per family.

After WWI, South Africa took over management of German South West Africa. South African troops were present to police the area. In 1990 Namibia won its independence from South Africa. Now, electric power is managed by Nampower and water is managed by Namwater. On March 14, 2019, the water supply was interrupted to Luderitz for a few days because of a transformer problem that interrupted the supply of electric power to the pumps and boosters that were needed to get the water delivered to the town. When we visited on April 6, everything was back to normal.

Although most of the building began around 1900 with German colonization and the diamond rush of 1909, there is a great variety of building styles in the town.

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We finally reached the top of the hill and the German Lutheran church. It is called the Felsenkirche and was built with all of the material brought from Germany. Even recent restorations used German sourced material.

The church was open because the cruise ship was in town.

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From the back of the church, we were able to see one of the tourist residences, the Nest Hotel.

Along the ridge near the church, we can see the other services that compete for the high ground. Wind turbines were tried a few times before the current model was installed. The previous installations did not stand up to the strong winds that blow along this part of the Atlantic coast.

After our visit to the church, we thought we were finished climbing uphill until we were told that there was one more important place to visit.

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There are several more churches in this small community. Here are pictures of a couple more.

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On our walk back to the port, we were told about the railway to Luderitz.

The railway was built with the labour that the Germans forced from the local people, men, women and children. The rail linked up with the mainline down to South Africa. It only ran a few times before the sand dunes that drifted over the track made it impractical to maintain. One of the slaves that was shovelling the sand off of the track noticed an unusually shiny stone. When he showed it to his master, the diamond rush was on. Diamonds were just lying on the surface of the sand.

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-Where do you want to go today? –