TransNamib: Dimensions of a Desert. Gabi Christa

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      It hardly ever rains in the desert. Lüderitz and Kolmanskop had an ever increasing demand for water. Experts like well driller Thieme searched for water in the Namib Desert for the thirsty up-coming Lüderitz. For navigation, we rely on GPS. Before these devices became available, apart from the map and the compass, at night you had the Southern Cross as a navigation aid. For that, you draw an imaginary line through the longitudinal axis and extend it 4.5 times. Drop a vertical line from this point, which is the South Celestial Pole (SCP), to the horizon – that place is due south. A navigation error in the desert can yield fatal consequences. The experienced afore-mentioned desert fox Thieme lost his bearing when he ran after his escaping donkey. A disastrous imprudence. For days without water Thieme wandered through the scorching heat in the desert. Whilst considering himself dead already, and at the end of his tether, he wrote in the sand “Thieme’s last hour”. But the discarded fragments of his shirt allowed the rescue party to track him down. Thieme was lucky, was found and survived.

      A similar fate happened to Dick Mansel, in 1894, when he was returning late from hunting and lost his way in the darkness. After four days of unsuccessfully searching an Ovambo man reported having found a man, almost dead of thirst. This was Dick. He had cut open a vein, dipped a thorn into his blood and written on to his shirt: “Dick Mansel, died of thirst, 26 October 94”.

      He had gotten away from the sandy grave in the Namib Desert, once again. Nobody knows how many have not managed to do so.

      It is not known whether Thieme went on with his hazardous job of searching for water for Lüderitz. The permanently poor supply of drinking water was a huge problem for the town in the desert. To begin with, thousands of tons of drinking water were shipped from Cape Town to Lüderitz bay, where it was sold to the residents. One cubic metre cost up to 40 Marks. Then, salt water condensers were installed and drilling for well water yielded good results. From Garub, 100 kilometres away, where Thieme had almost died; water was fetched from 65 metres below the surface and transported by train to the diamond hill. In 1914, a litre of water cost 14 Pfennig, the same amount of beer cost only 10 Pfennig. Mine labourers and their families received a free allowance of 20 litres per head. Thus, a family of three had 60 litres of fresh water available, which is a luxury in the desert. In 1920, a litre of condensed water cost 8 Pfennig and in 1930, 10 Pfennig. Today, Lüderitz and Kolmanskop draw water from the Koichab. Geomorphologic age determination considers this enormous water reservoir to be a remainder of the last big rainy season 10.000 years ago. These fossil water reserves have been tapped for Lüderitz since 1969; their level has not receded yet. The five bore holes extend 200 metres deep, at a distance of 90 kilometres from Lüderitz. A chemical analysis determined the age of this enormous underground lake at just 7.000 years.

      We have to bid farewell to Kolmanskop, a place steeped in history, energetically wrestled from the desert which now, quietly but steadily, claims it back. Once the 20.000 tourists a year have stopped coming here, the sand will cover it all. The exploration of the Namib Desert goes on. In the museum hangs an old tattered map of Southern Africa from that time. The sandy areas of the Namib Desert are marked a light yellow. These yellow expanses extend up to Portuguese West Africa, the modern Angola, and the town of Namibe, back then known as Moçâmedes. That’s where we want to go.