News

Unexpected rains in the middle of May also hit Namibia’s central coast, flooding streets at Walvis Bay and Swakopmund. Angola and Namibia agreed to a joint-development on a trans-frontier nature park on the Kunene River, along the common border. The Lufthansa subsidiary, Eurowings, introduced its first flight from Munich to Windhoek this month. Namibian scientist Japie van Zyl made his home country proud when launching the NASA Marslander Insight Mission in California, USA. According the Namibia Statistics Agency, inflation ticked slightly upwards to 3.6 percent in April, compared to 3.5 percent in March.

It is the third consecutive year that a Gondwana Collection property has reached the final of the Responsible Tourism Awards (RTA) and the first time to win the award. The Namib Desert Lodge scooped the prestigious award in the Accommodation Establishment category. The winners were announced today (30 May 2018) at the Namibia Tourism Expo in Windhoek. This year’s RTA criteria are based on the theme for the 2018 Tourism Expo: “Conservation – small things matter.”  

The President of Namibia has called for a concerted effort to clean up the country. The Gondwana Collection is in, of course! Staffers of the Gondwana Travel Centre in Windhoek have already started to collect garbage in the neighbourhood today (24 May). Furthermore, each employee received a cotton bag in order to cut down on plastic shopping bags. 

Armed with handheld searchlights and torches it is nightly entertainment for youngsters on a farm to try and catch springhares. These rodents measure around 40 centimetres, disregarding the tail, and their eyes can be seen glowing in the dark from afar. Blinded by the light shone at them they flee across the open grass plain hopping on their hind legs like kangaroos. Usually the springhares make it to their burrows but some will be caught. After the fun of catching a springhare it is released again. For others, especially San communities in arid areas like the Kalahari, springhares represent an important food source.

In the rainy season, when the ground is waterlogged, they sometimes surface in our gardens: about 25 centimetres long, more or less 5 millimetres thick, of a pinkish-brownish colour and of an appearance that resembles a worm or a snake. They are not worms nor snakes, however, but Kalahari Round-headed Worm Lizards (Zygaspis quadrifrons).

Did you know that a Namibian-born space engineer and scientist is leading a mission to Mars? Dr Japie van Zyl is currently the Director of the Solar System Exploration at NASA. As head of the InSight Mission, he and his team sent the first outer space robotic explorer to Mars on 5 May to study the planet's early geological evolution. You might wonder how a boy from Opuwo made it to the stars? Manni Goldbeck talked to Dr Japie van Zyl when he visited his birth country in 2012.

His memories of CYMOT’s early years? The founder of the family business frowns. “Team spirit, good leadership and innovation”, he says, “that was our recipe for success. We are having a casual breakfast meeting with Claus Theissen, now 78 years old, and two companions who worked at CYMOT for decades. Suddenly the memories start to burst forth, not so much memories of work, however, but rather of the practical application of the CYMOT product range during fishing and camping trips.