Kolmanskop

We were staying near Aus for the night, which meant retracing our steps 120km back east from Luderitz. Luckily we took a chance to see if we could get into Kolmanskop which is 20km back along the road (and 100km from Aus). This was to save us a trip back the next day to see the famous ghost town, as it is only open in the mornings. We found someone to sell us a permit ($90 for both of us), and he cautioned we only had 30 minutes to see everything. Well, that was enough I think. It used to be a miner's town until the 50's, when it was evacuated. Since then, the sand has encroached on all the buildings, filling them up in a very sad way. In some buildings, the sand is halfway up the walls, which is quite surreal near staircases etc. You can see from the photo with Simon near the doorway how much sand has come into some of the buildings that you can still walk around. If you are driving by, it is worth a visit, as the drive from Aus is so stunning in itself. But I wouldn't make a special trip... It was more eerie than ghostly. You did not expect to see someone around the corner, or a ghost appearing, it was just a strange deserted place, very quiet, with lots and lots of sand.