The Ghosts of Diamonds Past

Because your week is hectic and hump day Wednesday can often seem so far from the weekend, here’s a little mid-week moment of awe.

My boyfriend, JD, took this travel photo during our recent trip to Namibia in the ghost town of Kolmanskop.  The town has been abandoned less than 100 years (most people moved away in the 1930s but the hospital stayed open until the 50s), but the wind, sand and Mother Earth have decided to waste no time in reclaiming it.  Today Kolmanskop is a maze of sand covered rooms and eerie ghost hang outs.  What was once a thriving diamond mine – responsible for twenty percent of all the diamonds mined up to that time – is now abandoned batch of German architecture held prisoner by desert that stretches as far as you can see in any direction.

As the Kolmanskop tour headed down Main Street to check out the old school house, JD and I snuck off like naughty children to explore the other end by ourselves.  We were the first footsteps to disturb the wind whipped sand dunes that cover all but small parts of old mansions.  We jumped through old window frames, crawled through doors held open by uncompromising sand piles and spoke in whispers for no apparent reason.  We promised after each house to stop taking pictures; after all this was only the first day of our trip.  But then, like drug addicts eager for their fix, we would escape while the other wasn’t looking to take more.

JD turned himself in when he found this room.  He called for me to join him in this natural strobe light created by the broken floor boards overhead.  As we stood there with our feet buried in the sandy floor I’m sure I saw a ghost float just outside the window…