JMA's World Travels

Our next adventure was an amazing day-trip through the Khan River Valley with Matt & Petro, my cousin's in-laws. Starting off at "The Martin Luther", a steam engine that was meant to replace the ox-wagon and revolutionise transportation in the desert. Instead, after many near-mishaps in its transportation from Germany to Namibia, after just a few short trips it came to a grinding halt within sight of Swakopmund and has remained there ever since, now as a national monument. Next we arrived at an abandoned tin mine and the site of Anglo German fighting during the First World War. There are still many bullet holes and, as the story goes, the troops used to "shoot to miss" so the only deaths were by accidental ricochet and brought the "war" to a stop for the funeral attended by both sides. There were also regular football matches until the Kaiser heard about it and put an immediate stop to any fraternising with the enemy! Further into the valley we were completely isolated and alone for quite some time. It is really the most spectacular scenery and, as we approached each corner we were treated to another awesome sight. After lunch under "Matts Tree" one of our stops was to climb up to see some Welwitschia plants. These are curious and ugly looking plants that have been carbon-dated to older than 1000 years! They grow in the harshest parts of the desert, survive mostly on moisture from desert fog and occasionally burst into glorious flower, amazing! While at this stop we also discovered a small cemetery with gravestones dating from the 1800's to quite recent burials. Our last treat of the valley was to see the "moon landscape", the locals joke that this is where Armstrong actually landed, not on the moon (-: