GHOSTTOWN – when people moved out, the sand moved in....
For years I have wanted to visit this one place I just had to see for myself: The German ghosttown, abandoned and almost swallowed by the Namibian desert.
The place has a ghostly atmosphere. I went on a two hour guided tour with a group. Next morning I went again, all alone and before the groups arrived. Which made the place even more ghostly.....and so quiet. I almost expected to see people coming from a house or see the tram starting to move....I did meet another person on my way into a house filled with sand. He was on his way out. We both jumbed!
According to the guide on site, Kolmanskop was a diamond mining settelement founded in1908 when a German found diamonds in the desert. At that time Namibia was a German colony named German South-West Africa. Kolmanskop became rich very fast because diamonds were found in large numbers. It is said, that you could just sit on the sand and pick diamonds in the moonlight!
Today the buildings still left, shows what a comfortable life the inhabitants had: casino, bowling alley, theatre, school, hospital and even their own ice making factory. Also they had a tram, said to be the first in Africa. They had people sweeping the streets for sand....every day!
The hospital corridor, now filled with sand. As far as the guide knew, this hospital was the first in Africa to have an X-ray machine. Not only used for patients, but to check if workers had swallowed diamonds.
In 1920 there were 300 adult Germans living here and 800 local workers who were on contracts, working with the diamonds. Small, but rich community.
In the early1950s people started to move away. New and larger diamond areas were found further south. The miners and their families followed. They left Kolmanskop and many of their things behind. There are stil cans with food on shelves in one of the houses...
An amazing place to be wandering around early in the morning. Because people left it with everything still there, it gives that feeling of the people still there. Definitely worth to visit twice.
U.J
Kristiansand, Norway
All the photoes are mine, Ulla Jensen (flickr, Instagram and facebook) https://www.flickr.com/photos/154924655@N04/34498884903/in/photostream/
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So the tours to this place only during the daylight? Was wondering how's it looks if it happened at night.. well😉 if you happened to visit the ghost town again, a night tour perhaps.
Awesome photos and ghost town always interesting to visit anywhere in the world, right? But honestly.. never knew about this one before.. Thanks for sharing with us @digi-me I mean Ulla😊
Thank you :) Ulla
Thanks. A night tour might be a really ghostly experience :) There are snakes there.... I think I would not go alone at night, but with a group? yes, maybe :)
Snakes? Well... you'd better not going there alone. Do you really believe that there's ghost there?
Hi there @digi-me! This post is amazing; your photos, unbelievable! Thanks to @mirrors and her curation, I found it! I'm hoping to discuss a few things with you privately via Discord; I'd like to submit your work like this to curie, but there are certain things they expect that you would need to do differently.
I am also a member/curator for @asapers, and we value quality unnoticed work like yours. If you are interested, here is an invite link. I would love to submit your work, but you need to be a member first :)
Thanks again for such an awesome post! I had no idea this existed :)
Sure we would like our work to be submittet to reach more people. Maybe you can let us know what we have to do differently? I am going to share more travelstories wich photoes, as it is one of my great passions.
@digi-me, are you on Discord? If so, we can chat there. Just let me know 😅
Yes, I am, Christopher. Son of Ulla, send me an invite link I am available from 16.00 (utc) tomorrow, good night
Hi sorry, but I can't seem to find you :) I'm there as @lynncoyle1#4299. Can you send me a message when you get a chance?
What an awesome post @digi-me, like @lynncoyle1 and @mirrors im part of the @asapers a small curation team that shares payouts with their followers. If your keen to be curated then consider following the @asapers.
Side note: tge curie thing Lynn was tslking about is a pretty big thing and worth learning/changing a few small things and also think you could be at that level in no time. I hope to see you soon. 😁
Thank you @insideoutlet :)
Thank you for your suggestions. We are now following. We are trying to build a brand as contents creaters . My son who runs this channel will be in contact when it comes to the curating.. I, Ulla is one of the contributers with the content, while he is doing the "tecnical" work. You can also read our introduction post.
@digi-me so this is a group family account? You all use it, I can see that you follow us now, so next curation post I will check out your current work, I am struggling a bit with finding time to do everything but we will preserve. Hope to see more from you soon.
This actually is my first time of learning of this, thanks for sharing.
When I left Germany I was thinking of living in Namibia, never made it. There are not many things I regret, but that may have been one.
Your photos are even more descriptive than your editorial, although without, maybe the photos would not have had that impact.
Great post.
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Congratulations @digi-me, your post has been selected by the @asapers for a resteem and a feature in our brand new curation post. Issue 84
What does this mean for you? Well first an upvote from some members of the team, we are no @curie or @ocd but who is going to be unhappy with some extra upvotes. Also each post featured in the article will receive a 10% share of the SBD generated from the curation post.
Keep up the great work and please consider supporting the @asapers with an upvote and/or a resteem on the post you feature in. Please wait seven to ten days for payout.
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P.S. Welcome to the @asapers and what an awesome place this is. thanks for sharing it with us all. @insideoutlet
Thanks, i resteem it and gave you a upvote.
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
Amazing post! I seem to remember National Geographic (or something) featuring this place years ago - just amazing. Thanks for sharing it so beautifully.
Oh, I came in from asapers.
When I was planning the trip, I learned about the place from local touroperaters, but also from Lonely Planet guide book :) I did discover that this placed has been written about. It is really worth the effort if one is in Namibia. But only 2 flights a week when I was there, so I had to stay several days in Luderitz, but there are more places to visit :)
Fabulous!!!!! Not just the photography, but I love how you paint pictures with your words too! :) They go hand in hand, very nicely!
Did you two laugh when you jumped at the sight of seeing someone unexpectedly???? hahahahaha I giggled at that part! I bet your hearts were racing! LOL
This part is unbelievable!!!!
wow!!!! and the xray machine that checked for swallowed diamonds! hahahahahaa wow! This was a really entertaining post! I'm looking forward to your next one :)
I absolutely love your pictures and that ghost house is incredible.
So unique with all the sand and the mysterious feeling of it. Must have been a wonderful experience.
I love how you write and tell the story, it's like I'm right there with you 😉 really cool and it made me smile. Thank you for sharing and wow, amazing pictures. Have a wonderful weekend. Cheers! 🌼🌻🌼