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What a party! Gondwana started its 20th anniversary celebrations at the Namibia Tourism Expo yesterday (18 May). Fancy Galada and the Professors brought the Gondwana Shebeen’s roof down with catchy rhythms, and Namibian Kwaito star EES feat. The Hunta performed their new song “Sundowner” for the first time. The Sundowner song is a partnership project with Gondwana, EES and Namibia Breweries. Download the song for free and watch the video on YouTube.

What a celebration! Who could have imagined such a wonderful (and challenging) journey when Gondwana began humbly twenty years ago - inspired by the spirit of a new Namibia - with just a handful of people and a dream.  The vision to make a difference – to both people and nature – led a group of like-minded friends to purchase our first farm east of the Fish River Canyon, with the intention of creating a conservation area. Our first lodge, Canyon Lodge, opened its doors in 1996 to help fund the dream. 

This year the Gondwana Collection is celebrating 20 years at the Namibia Tourism Expo and heartily invites anyone who would like to celebrate with us. Join us from 18 to 21 May at the Gondwana Shebeen and grab one of our jubilee newspapers, or click here for the English edition Celebrate or the German edition Wir feiern. Participate in our Sundowner Competition and stand a chance to win your share of 101 nights at any Gondwana Lodge. Live music will be available in the evenings.

Heinrich Vogelsang was instructed by Adolf Lüderitz, a merchant from Bremen in Germany, to acquire Angra Pequena and the surrounding land from Nama Kaptein Joseph Frederiks.The Nama Kaptein was prepared to sell Angra Pequena and the surrounding land, “five miles in all directions”, for the price of 100 pounds sterling in gold and 200 rifles plus accessories. Frederiks assumed that British miles, the customary scale of length at the time, applied while Adolf Lüderitz later insisted on the much longer German mile. The deliberate misguidance became known as the “deception with miles”.

What a success! Eco Awards Namibia assessed Hakusembe River Lodge for the first time and instantly honoured it with four desert flowers. The lodge of the Gondwana Collection on the banks of the Okavango River scored high marks for staff and health, social responsibility, management and legal compliance, building and landscaping, guiding as well as waste, pollution and sewer. Similar to the star-rating system for tourist accommodation, the environmental initiative awards up to five flowers for sustainability.

Some 2000 years ago Phoenician seafarers sailed down the coast of Africa, ended up in Namibia, crossed the Namib and painted a picture of their princess on rock. You don’t have to be a scientist to figure out that this story belongs in the realm of fairy tales and legends. Nevertheless, experts seriously discussed this as a theory for years. Even the name of the main figure is a reminder of it: the White Lady, one of the most famous rock paintings in southern Africa. It draws hundreds of tourists into the Tsisab Valley of the Brandberg Mountain west of Uis every year.

The Namibia Wild Horses Foundation would like to express their gratitude for all the generous contributions for the wild horses during the past six months. This has provided supplementary feed – a quarter to a third of the horses’ nutritional requirements – in the form of grass/lucerne and a protein lick, and will sustain the population until the beginning of June when the next phase will need to be implemented to ensure their survival. The Foundation is appealing for funds or good quality grass for this more severe period and urges the public to continue with their support for the wild horses to see them through the winter.

Kalahari’s sands harbour unusual treasures. The Devil’s Claw is one such gem, known to the indigenous people for centuries for its medicinal properties. Although its name stems from the claw-like hooks of the thorny fruit, it is the secondary tubers of the Harpagophytum procumbens that are harvested for their analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties.

In 1896, rinderpest broke out in the Zambezi River region and spread through southern Africa like wildfire. According to estimates some 2.5 million head of cattle died in South Africa alone. Game died in similar numbers. The cattle plague spread to Namibia, then the German colony of South West Africa, in early April 1897. The cattle plagueeclipsed all livestock losses through animal diseases thus far. The transport network relied on ox wagons and was paralysed. Wagons with freight got stuck en route from Swakopmund to Windhoek because whole teams of oxen fell sick. 

Wild horses have lived in the vast stretches of the Namib Desert in the southwestern corner of Namibia for close to a century, in what was once the Sperrgebiet, forbidden diamond mining territory, and is now the Namib-Naukluft Park. They have captured our imaginations and our hearts, and have come to represent fierce survival, the strong and rugged spirit of Namibia, and – freedom.