5 things you need to do in Namibia

March 21 Namibia celebrates Independence Day. Today we tell about what you need to do the tourist, who got into this country in the first place.

Visit a ghost town Kolmanskop

Only a hundred years ago Namibia reputed legendary Eldorado. However, not gold hide lifeless dunes and precious diamonds. In 1908, one railway worker clears the way from sand drifts, lucky: among the piles caused by wind, showed real adamant. Lucky unexpected finding shared with Augustus Shtauhom foreman, and then it went in the famous quote Muller: “Know two – knows a pig.” A couple of years turned into a deserted corner of the African Dawson: hundreds of people to flee their homes in different parts of the world, arriving in Kolmanskop. In the city, there are only a little more than a thousand residents were private hospital, and a bakery, and the first on the African continent tram, and casino and a furniture factory, and even X-ray laboratory. Here are just diamonds here so more and was not found. Leaving alone the city built with constant desert winds, prospectors moved on a treasure hunt to the Orange River. A surprisingly scenic Kolmanskop became a ghost town. Despite open a museum, you can get here only by special permission, and at a certain time.

Many global catastrophes have done shards of celestial bodies, trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere. Large meteorites crashed into the surface of our planet in prehistoric times, becoming, according to one version, the cause of the dinosaurs, and today – remember the famous Tunguska meteorite and very recent trouble convulsed Chelyabinsk. Leaving terrible scars on the body of the Earth, visitors from outer space are hidden from the human eye – it is done “bombing”, they turn to dust. One of the few remaining “Aliens” landed near the small town of Grootfontein, accidentally discovered in 1920 by farmer Jakob Hermanus. During his plow tillage stopped suddenly stumbled on a sound barrier – Hoba meteorite weighing 60 tons. Its impressive size (meter in height and about 2.7 meters in length and width) stone settled in Guinness Book of Records as the biggest cosmic body and the world’s largest natural reservoir of metal. Due to the machinations of the Vandals extraterrestrial block, landed more than 80,000 years ago, was transferred to state ownership and fenced.

Among the many nature reserves in Africa is hardly two alike. River Serengeti in Tanzania hide a lot of crocodiles in rare bushes on the territory of Amboseli in Kenya live hordes finch and the Namibian Reserve Etosha (translated from the Ovambo people adverbs – “great white spot”) is famous for its quietness. This piece of nature, formed in place of the dried pond Etosha Pan, looks like a fantastic Martian landscapes. On the cracked plateau resembling an abandoned construction site, silence reigns, only occasionally broken by the voices of birds or crackling branches through which sneaks beast. But it is worth to stay near the lake, and appear as the locals: elephants, giraffes, lions and a large herd of black rhinos. National Park in the north-west of the Kalahari Desert, spread on 22,000 square kilometers, was created back in the days when Namibia was a German colony. Before the authorities took up his arrangement, Etosha experienced hard times: political turmoil deprived him ¾ territory, and due to lack of water and prolonged drought have disappeared from the face of the earth and its many inhabitants.

Hundreds of thousands of deaths and wrecks have seen deadly Sands Beach skeletons sprawled in the south of the Namib Desert. Many centuries one of the deadliest places on the planet deprive people of hope, and then life. Dense fog, immersing ashore in impenetrable veil of lactic and powerful waves born cold Benguela over, pushed off course ships aground. The only chance for salvation in the boats crashing on the rocks – because of the strong surf was virtually impossible to get to land. Those who smiled fate soon realized how deceptive it was luck: this deserted corner of land, separated by hundreds of miles from civilization sands, does not have any hope for survival. Skeleton Coast differs strange contradictory beauty: whitened time and winds human bones buried in the sands, and next – a huge colony of cute South African fur seals at Cape Cross Cape. Visiting only in Africa pinniped rookery friendly, open to visits paid. Popular here and trophy fishing waters near the Namibian Skeleton Coast rich in seafood.

Walk along the sands of the Namib Desert

The name given to the most ancient tribe of the Nama desert world, signifying “a place where there is nothing”, reflects the essence of the endless sands and, at the same time, quite wrong. Many secrets and unique places on the planet hides the only coastal heath, which appeared more than 80 million years ago. Among the endless dunes born violent sandstorms, hidden deposits of diamonds and uranium ores, and in coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean home to thousands of species of fish, seals and even penguins. Although the rains are almost as rare as manna from heaven, just a few drops of water transform the Namib. Cracked from the heat of the valley suddenly become meadows filled with finches, Sarychev, antelopes and giraffes. A long time ago, and so formed a marvelous Dead-Pour – Area once covered with greenery. But with the return of drought forest turned to stone, doomed forever to stand among the sands. Another miracle of the desert, it became the most photographed place are “alien” Sossusvlei dunes – the highest on the planet sand hills that change color depending on the time of day.

 

 

5 things you need to do in Namibia