Kruger and Southern Africa

[Jacques Vert]

There are also two rooms which have a rooftop, open air bedroom (for an extra fee) where you can lay in bed and look at the stars:





They come with a rooftop, open air shower:




and dunny, of course





And excellent views of.............the desert,




and the pool area:

 

[LadyC]

We stopped at the bakery in Soltaire also (i think everyone must! ). Enjoying your photos. Brings back some good memories. The landscape sometimes reminded me of Australia.

 

[Jacques Vert]

More at Le Mirage.

The area to the right of the following photo is the sundowner area:



A few animals come in to the artificial waterhole:



The view from the sundowner deck:




And the sunset...




And Venus following close behind:

 

[Jacques Vert]

The tariff at Le Mirage is half board; or dinner, bed and breakfast if you prefer. Dinner turned out to be a 5 course set menu, with two choices for the main...




A lovely ambiance in the restaurant...





Excellent food:











All very tasty, excellent service; a lovely place to stay.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Dessert:




And then back to out room...









An Oryx comes into the waterhole:

 

[Jacques Vert]

We stopped at the bakery in Soltaire also (i think everyone must! ). Enjoying your photos. Brings back some good memories. The landscape sometimes reminded me of Australia.

I guess there aren't many other places to stop, especially if coming from the north. Also, an opportune time to fill up the tank.

Did you meet the original owner?

 

[LadyC]

Very few places to stop at all i think. I remember picking up a few provisions there on our way down to Sossusvlei. We were there in August 2013. I think we saw the original owner there. I more remember sitting in our car eating our pies!

 

[Jacques Vert]

Next morning it was up early to head to the dunes. We had originally thought of driving there ourselves however, Le Mirage have a six hour tour with local guide for $N950 and we decided to go with him.

The gate to the Park opened at 0645 so we left Le Mirage at 0605 and, arriving at the gate at 0635, were about 7th in the queue.

The road inside the Park is bitumen all the way to the 2WD carpark. Our guide made a couple of stops along the way.

Then we were given the opportunity to climb Dune 45. Depending on your source, it is either 85 or 170 metres high.




You can see the top bit in the distance:





Having climbed it, I'm happy that it is 170m.




Then we went to Deadvlei:



and Sossusvlei:

 

[Jacques Vert]

And we visit Sesriem Canyon on the way back...






Then we headed for Aus and there's rain in the distance:




However we soon catch up with it. I think it was TraceyK90 who said that the roads can turn to mud quite quickly; I agree. When we arrived at Aus I spoke to a chap who did this same drive in the morning and he said it was bone dry; not so as we head towards Betta:




Until now we hadn't seen a drop of rain and there have been plenty of two wheel drives about. Not long after taking this photo we are in 4H and down to around 35km/h, slipping and sliding as we go.


Then we drive out the other side and it's bone dry again.

 

[Jacques Vert]

At Betta the road turns almost 180 degrees and heads back into the storm...




and the visibility isn't good. At one stage the rain is horizontal with gale force wind, the road is two-thirds under water in places and both sides of the road are flooded. This is the view I had for more than half an hour...




Again after about 40km of slush we emerge from under the clouds, but there's more rain ahead...



It's amazing how quickly the desert turns green with a bit of rain:



We miss the rest of the rain and approach Aus ; well, it should be on the other side of this valley:

 

[Jacques Vert]

There's not much at Aus: a population of about 150, a pub, a fuel station, and not much else, although there are some Commonwealth War Graves and the remains of a prisoner of war camp just out of town; but more on that later.

The best thing about Aus is its location at the junction of the C13 and B4. And it's a long way to anywhere else from here: Luderitz being the closest town of any size and that's 120km to the west.

So after getting up before 0500, spending around seven hours to and from Sossusvlei, and then driving for more than five hours on gravel, mud and through water, it is a convenient and welcome place to stop for the night.

We stay at another Gondwana Collection property: the Desert Horse Inn...



Similarly to the previous Gondwana (Namib Desert Lodge), the "public" areas have a nice ambiance...




but while not wanting to be overly critical, the rooms are not quite to the same standard. At the Desert Horse Inn we have a fridge but a ceiling fan rather than an air conditioner...




The rooms face west with an outside deck which allows you to sit and watch the sunset...




While this may be fine in winter, it's far too hot to sit out there at this time of year, and of course the room is very hot when we arrive as the windows and doors have been closed most of the day.

However, we adjourn to the bar and watch the sunset from there...




There's Venus again.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Another sunset photo:




Dinner here is a set menu with a choice from two starters, two mains and two desserts...






The inside bar area...




Cute:




There is also a deck off the bar area.

 

[Jacques Vert]

The road from Aus to Luderitz is about as desolate as one can imagine...



There is not much of interest except the rest areas...





and the occasional rollover:



then back to the desert:




On the left of the photo is the railway line.

 

[Jacques Vert]

The original railway line from Luderitz to Aus was completed in the 1900's. It fell into disuse but is currently under rehabilitation and has been for more than ten years. Local people laugh with frustration at how long it is taking with modern machinery when 100 years ago it took less than a year.

But that is not the full story. According to http://klausdierks.com/Namibia_Rail/2.htm:

'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.'

Of course building a railway in this part of the world has its challenges. Here the new line disappears into a sand dune:




and emerges on the other side.





The sandstorms here are legendary and the railway and highway are constantly being buried by sand dunes. I estimated the depth of sand over the railway to be around 25 metres in a couple of places. The highway is kept open by front end loaders and bulldozers.

 

[Jacques Vert]

So, a little more than an hour after leaving Aus, we arrive in



where we are staying at the Luderitz Nest Hotel:



The Nest is a kilometre or two out of town but quite nice for such a small, out-of-the-way town.

The view from our room:



the pool area:



the garden outside the restaurant (taken from the bar area upstairs):

 

[Jacques Vert]

When entering Luderitz avoid the first service station on the right; not only do they expect a tip but they also try to help themselves to part of your change. There's a Shell in town near the port facilities which is a far better alternative.

As it is only a short drive from Aus, we arrived early giving us enough time for some sightseeing...

The church on the rock:



Inside is only open for an hour per day (between 1700 and 1800 the day we are there) so we will have to come back later.




Some of the old German-style buildings...

 

[Jacques Vert]

Some more German-style architecture:

 

[Jacques Vert]

North of town on the way to Agate Beach is the sewage treatment plant. The treated water flows into a valley that heads towards the beach resulting in the only bit of greenery for hundreds of kilometres. It's a hit with the local wildlife:








Agate Beach itself is not much and could do with a decent clean-up campaign:

 

[Jacques Vert]

In 1487 Bartolomeu Diaz was the first European to visit the area. His reports could not have been particularly generous because it was almost 400 years before Adolf Luderitz founded a settlement here.

Diaz erected a stone cross on a point named in his honour, west of the present town, in an area that is possibly even more desolate than that between Aus and Luderitz:



There used to be a bridge to the point that was built to access a foghorn that was housed there:




The sign says it is closed "until the bridge is fixed".



However you can still access the point to visit the cross; the current one is a replica erected in 1988:

 

[Jacques Vert]

On the way back to the CBD we come across a Black-backed Jackal:






After an interesting visit to the museum which is open from 3-30 to 5-00, we head back to the church which is now open for an hour...






And it's floodlight of an evening: