The Bus Journey From Windheok to Luderitz & Finally to Kolmanskop

Tuesday morning my first point of action was to find a bus heading down south. The accommodation I had wanted to stay at was booked out for the night so I had to go to a different backpackers, which while a lot cheaper, wasn’t that nice so I decided to leave ASAP. I took a cab to ‘Rhino Park’ for N$10 (less than $1aud) where I was told I would be able to find a bus.

The cab journey began with the driver asking me if I knew how to fix his radio system, it was stuck in Chinese and he was forced to listen to classical music “which was not his style”. I unfortunately don’t read Chinese and he was surprised when I said I’m Australian. I asked him if Rhino Park was safe, as I had been to bus stations in African countries before and was a bit concerned, but he assured me it was. When I arrived I was pleasantly surprised, there was a line of minibuses ready to take people each under a designated and signed area. All I had to do was head for the terminal that said Luderitz and buy my ticket. I had been told several times the day before that I would only be able to get to Keetmanshoop in one day, however as soon as I saw the sign saying Luderitz I decided then and there just to hop on. For reference, Keetmanshoop is about 500km from Windhoek, and Luderitz an additional 340km … in total it was to be about 840km in one day by minibus. 

I had arrived at Rhino Park at about 8:15am. In Africa when you travel by minibus the bus will only leave when it is full, which was no exception in Namibia. I had hopes that we would leave by 10am, however I soon realised that this was quite optimistic as it slowly went by 10am, then 11am, then 12pm … The bus next to us was headed to Keetmanshoop, and the buses for it filled and left 3 times before we did. On several occasions I thought to myself that I should have just split the trip in two parts. It was 12:30 by the time the bus was full and the driver was in, which was a decent wait of about 4 hours. However the bus ticket was only N$280, or about $25AUD, so I couldn’t complain too much.  Once we got going we made pretty good time, stopping only twice for petrol and toilet breaks at Mariental and at Keetmanshoop. 

 (Luderitz Backpackers)

It was 9:30pm by the time we arrived at Luderitz. The bus journey was long, but still enjoyable. There is not much to see on a drive in Namibia, there are very few towns and the journey is mostly flat, with a few mountains in the distance. A 9 hour bus journey is always more enjoyable than a 9 hour airplane ride, and I was content to just sit and listen to my music for the whole journey. Time went by relatively quickly.

It was dark as we got into Luderitz and I was a bit uncertain of where to go once we got there. I knew where I wanted to end up, Luderitz Backpackers, and I had their street name, but it was dark in a town I knew nothing about. The bus driver was very friendly however, and directed a cab driver where to take me. However, after dropping off the first two passengers, it was clear the cab driver had no idea where to go. So it was at 10pm that we spent driving around town looking for the street. He would pull up to a shop or to a bar and ask one of his friends where it was, and they would point him in a direction, but we still couldn’t find it. I have no working SIM card in Namibia so I couldn’t use Google Maps to find it, and eventually we pulled up to a bar and he went inside. A few minutes later he came out with his inebriated friend who was very certain he knew where the backpackers was, “I will show you the truth”. I was now getting a little bit worried, but there was no much else I could do, however we turned up a street and there it was! I still had to get inside though so I stood outside ringing the bell for a while, waiting for an answer that wasn’t coming, with my new drunk friend dialling the phone number of the backpackers for me. At 10:30pm I was saved thankfully, when the owner of Luderitz Backpackers pulled up outside in his car and brought me inside. 

I chose a single room for the night as the prices were pretty cheap and I didn’t feel like disturbing the people in the dorm, and was brought into a massive room with 5 beds and a large bathroom. After a hot shower it was time to sleeeeep. 

The next morning I booked a ticket to Kolmanskop, which was basically the whole reason I came to Luderitz. I had seen pictures of it online and had decided to go there. It is also partially the reason I opted to not do a 10 day tour through Namibia, as many safari companies skip this location, and why I decided just to try and travel through Namibia alone without a tour. Kolmanskop is the where diamonds were first discovered in Namibia, and basically what brought the Germans. It is now a ghost town that has been overtaken by the desert. I got a cab out to Kolmanskop and got the driver to wait for me while I did the tour and looked around ($N140 for about 2 hours/$13aud). There was a large group of us there to do the tour, and it was split into two groups, German speaking and English speaking. I went with the English speaking group, but I was now with a massive group of people from the Netherlands who were on a tour through the country. They wanted the guide to speak Dutch or Afrikaans (two very similar languages), but I was the only person in the whole group who didn’t understand either of those languages. So it was done in English just for me.

The tour was very interesting, the Germans certainly liked to live in luxury in the desert, with some very grand houses and their own machine that made ice for them. Everyday they would get freshwater and a block of ice delivered to their houses free of charge. The main street of houses was called “Millionaires Avenue” and we got to have a look around the old bowling alley and the general store. You can enter every building at Kolmanskop, except one which is quite dilapidated. The only thing that is currently holding it together is the sand dune within it!

There were lots of people with fancy cameras taking photos, and it is a very interesting place to photograph, its almost like a glimpse of what the world would look like in a few hundred years or so if the human race were to suddenly become extinct.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in Luderitz, at a café where I found good free wifi (my parents have been a bit concerned about my whereabouts the past day or so) and walking around the town. It’s a quaint town, not much to do or see, but it is peaceful and nice and worth the detour out here. I really like the backpackers I’m staying at as well, its an old house that has been renovated, and there are few people staying here so I basically have the place to myself which I am enjoying. I asked the owner if anyone else was staying in the dorm tonight (as I switched from the single to the dorm to save money) and he said no and that he will “keep everyone out!”. At only N$120 a night ($11.50AUD) I can’t complain.

Luderitz is also the last bit of Namibia I’m really going to see. I’ve booked a bus ticket to Keetmanshoop for tomorrow morning and then the following day I’m hoping to take the Intercape bus to Kimberley in South Africa. If all goes to plan then Friday night I should be crossing the border to South Africa! Then Sunday I have my train ticket booked and Monday afternoon I’ll be rolling into Cape Town. I’m very excited to be back in South Africa, probably mostly to have a SIM card that will work. Then after that, I have about 1.5 weeks to make my way to Johannesburg and catch a flight to Abu Dhabi ….