News

On 21 October 2017, the diamond mining town of Oranjemund will open its doors to visitors for the first time. Up until now, the small town, hidden in the Namib Desert close to the Orange River mouth, has been a restricted mining area. From then onwards, anyone will be able to enter, or drive over the impressive Sir Ernest Oppenheimer Bridge to Alexander Bay on the South African side. This opens huge economic prospects for this hidden gem in the Namibian Desert, including tourism.

‘Quiche, hazelnut cheesecake, white-wood furniture . . . what’s not to like about this fine little lunch and breakfast spot that makes a priority of fresh ingredients and friendly service? Oh, and there’s great coffee, art on the walls, free wi-fi and so much more.’ (Lonely Planet) The Main Street Café in Omaruru has received the Certificate of Excellence award on TripAdvisor for the last two years with its small and simple menu and high quality of ingredients, level of service and cleanliness.

On the new Gondwana Website you can now go shopping. With the new shopping cart function you can conveniently plan and book your entire trip. You can select and pay for more than one property at once. An integrated map functionality shows the route description. Clients will be able to create a profile and account on the store. Online shopping made easy.

Always remember that the gentle giants are wild animals! They cannot think as we do but their memory is legendary – an elephant never forgets, as the saying goes. Also remember that we are encroaching on their space, not the other way round. Elephants are seen as being good-natured, deliberate, calm and tame. But when we cross the invisible line between them and us they are dangerous, powerful, ruthless and unpredictable. 

The winners of the Faces of Namibia competition have been announced! The competition was powered by the Gondwana Collection, in partnership with Bank Windhoek, and received over 130 entries. The theme of the competition was ‘what about Namibia inspires you’ and offered a variety of interesting stories.

To see the second largest canyon with your own eyes is always an exciting experience. To stand in front of that huge gorge in the middle of the crimson landscape, which cleaves in endless curves and turns, makes you feel small and unimportant. Within a second, there’s no space for stress or worries – all that counts is the calmness and dignity of this great canyon. A truly unique experience. Well, that was my opinion until I got the chance to hike inside the Fish River Canyon for three days and to learn that no viewpoint could ever show you the true face of that beautiful landscape.

One of the few line-fish species sought after by anglers on our coast, is the west coast seabream (Lithognathus aureti), better known as Steenbras. The bigger the fish the better, but that had tremendous effects on the species. In the 90s Dr Hannes Holtzhausen, researcher at the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, found out that the west coast seabream is one of the few species which is protandrous. 

Afristay has presented four accommodation establishments of the Gondwana Collection with the 2017 Top Valued Establishment Award. They are Namib Desert Lodge, Kalahari Anib Lodge and Kalahari Farmhouse as well as The Delight Swakopmund.  

The latest statistics released in September show that Namibia’s economy had negative growth in the first and second quarter this year and thus moved into a technical recession. Growth dropped to minus 1.7 percent each during both quarters. Namibia’s ranking in the latest Global Competitiveness Index dropped from sixth place to seventh place among the ten most competitive African economies. 

Home to the ancient Namib Desert, Namibia is known for the unusual and the mysterious. Austrian naturalist and botanist, Friedrich Welwitsch was awe-struck when on 3 September 1859 whilst in southern Angola he came across a plant unlike any he had previously seen. So overcome by his find, he is said to have fallen to his knees and stared. He noted: “... I am convinced that I saw the most beautiful and magnificent botanical wonder that tropical southern Africa can present.”