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“Travelon; By Jonathan van Bilse + f ~~ er f ’ . eos . It’s ludicrous not to visit Luderitz It Seems no matter where | travel South Africa’s Orange River and brought up the coast by ocean currents. lam always amazed by the constant Prior to the gem discovery the area was a desert wasteland. One day a surprises | encounter, and a recent trip German immigrant named Koopman travelled the area delivering supplies. | took to Namibia did not disappoint A giant rock sat in his path and it was difficult for him to manouever around me. First of all, for those not familiar it. He decided to blow it out of the way and found the precious jewels lying with this south-west African country, it beneath. That was the start of one of the largest diamond rushes on the is home to the highest sand dunes in planet, probably equivalent to our Klondike gold rush. Thousands of the world as well as the second largest Please turn to page 40 canyon (next, only to Arizona’s Grand Canyon). | love Africa and have been numerous times, but always dread the journey and Namibia was no different; with three flights, the longest of which was 16 hours non-stop. | can talk forever about the wonders of this African country, deep in the Kalahari Desert, but the one place that stands out from the rest is the German descendant town of Luderitz, located on the ocean, halfway up the coun- try. If you draw a straight line across the globe, intersecting Luderitz, you touch Rio de Janeiro, and Ayers Rock, Australia. So what is it that makes this seem- ingly sleepy town so interesting? In one word: diamonds. Luderitz was nothing more than a desert town where sud- denly, about a hundred years ago, dia- monds were discovered on the beach. They were washed out to the sea from . the beach .,.the sun... the sand... the shells... We'll get you there! e marliny~trave 158 Casimir St., Port Perry 905-985-2268 virginia.frew @ marlintravel.ca FOCUS - JANUARY 2015 39