Luderitz lies on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa. Founded in 1883, the area was purchased from the local Nama chief by Heinrich Vogelsang on behalf of Adolf Luderitz, from Bremen in Germany. Before the discovery of diamonds there in 1909, Luderitz was mostly a trading post, with some of the economy based on fishing and guano-harvesting. When the diamonds were discovered, the area enjoyed a huge burst of popularity and prosperity but today diamonds are found mostly elsewhere and offshore. The harbor, with its shallow rock bottom, made it unusable for modern ships and led to Walvis Bay becoming the center of the Namibian shipping industry.
Because of the shallow rock bottom, the Capt had informed us that we might have to tender into port. Depending on the tides, it is too shallow for a ship of our size. We were on a tender at about 8:30. Namibia is known for it's huge Namib Desert, and receives very little rainfall per year. We were there on one of one or two days a year that it does rain. We just took umbrellas and rain jackets and headed into town. There we walked thru town and up a hill to Felsenkirche, the Lutheran church, built in 1912.
After visiting every store in the town, only one being a tourist store, we decided to go on a quest for packing materials. We went to an upholstery shop to see if they had any scraps of foam. We got 2 pieces which worked out perfectly to wrap the ears on Mel's large wood elephant. At the "department" store, we bought 2 large pillows to use to pack it also.
We walked all over the town, down to the small beach by the pier, past the elementary school where kids crowded around us to be in a picture, then back to the pier. We were back onboard at about 1. By that time at least it was no longer raining. Not a very interesting port, but very unusual.
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