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Visit the Gondwana YouTube Channel and you won’t stop marvelling: breath-taking landscapes and leading actors who in real life work at the respective lodges but excel at telling their story. EES, aka Eric Sell produced the video clips of the Gondwana lodges together with his second cameraman, Manfred Werner. The result is a gorgeous feast for the eyes.

The First World War in German South West Africa. Exactly 100 years ago, at the beginning of July 1915, it was apparent to the German authorities that the Schutztruppe were completely surrounded. The Commander in Chief, Victor Franke, had two choices: fight on or surrender!

Long before the Twyfelfontein engravings became a popular tourist destination and received recognition as a world heritage site, the land was visited sporadically by Damara people watering their animals at the trickling spring. It was named Twyfelfontein (‘doubtful spring’) by the farmer, David Levin, who settled on the arid land in the late 1940s with the hope that the spring’s water could sustain them.

Agnes Hill’s grave at Holoog was always a mystery; the words ‘Peace Perfect Peace’ inscribed on the simple black dolomite headstone overlooking the dry, rocky land. Mysteries often lie buried in mounds of historical facts and discovering the missing pieces that are the sinew of family history is like finding shining nuggets of gold. Such a poignant story as this touches chords deep within, the parts of us that reach for threads of love that appear and disappear in our lifespan in fleeting moments of chance and destiny. 

An airmail letter from London addressed to RHA Schneider, Swakopmund, SWA, was duly delivered to the Schneider family in December 1952. The addressee, Reinhard Schneider, was however seriously ill. His son Heiner (Schneider-Waterberg) did not know the sender’s name, which he made out as A Scotland, and put the letter into the “pending” tray. Years later, when he researched the history of his family’s farm Okosongomingo, he came upon the name AP Scotland again in files that were more than 30 years old. 

Thirty years after the death of the notorious Nhadiep, a shiver of fear still runs through southern Namibia whenever his name is mentioned and people are quick to say: “Meneer, hou op van Nhadiep te praat” (Sir, stop talking about Nhadiep). They grew up frightened into obedience by their parents’ threats that the South’s most feared man would come after them.

The air disaster at Ondekaremba April 20th 1968 was a moonless, starlit evening with no wind. Flight SA 228 was ready for take-off from JG Strijdom airport (now Hosea Kutako) 45 kilometres east of Windhoek. Relatives and friends of the 46 passengers who had recently boarded the plane were standing on the terrace of the airport building. They saw the Pretoria speed away on the runway, take off and start to climb. Then, unspeakable horror: the plane levelled off, rapidly lost height and hit the ground. A fiery glow lit up the night. Fifty seconds had passed since take-off. 

How does the Dancing White Lady spider find its way back to its den in an almost straight line after hours of zigzagging about? What can we do to prevent deserts from spreading? And above all, where do we get answers to such interesting and vital questions? The last question can easily be answered: some 100 kilometres southeast of the coastal town of Walvis Bay, at the Gobabeb Desert Research Station on the northern bank of the Kuiseb River. Established in 1962, it is visited by more than a hundred scientists each year.

Alongside the Kupferbergpad that takes you from Windhoek over the Gamsberg Pass to Walvis Bay one comes upon a commemorative plaque in honour of 32-year-old police sergeant Hermann Strunck who was killed during an armed robbery in April 1912. The crime not only kept the inhabitants of Windhoek in suspense, but also made headlines in several newspapers 'back home' in Germany. 

Southern Namibia in 1760: "Which animal, even though not quite as big as an elephant, is of a rather tall body and also because of the long neck, humped back and high legs is a type of camel, albeit not the proper one"? With these words, written in 1760, a European describes the first giraffe he ever saw and obviously couldn't quite place among the animals he knew. The Afrikaans word for giraffe (kameelperd - which literally means camel horse) is probably based on this description.