Very, Very Small Towns

Animal count: Gemsbok, springbok, zebra, duiker, cape fox, bat eared fox, black backed jackal, giraffe, aardwolf, barking gecko, agama lizard

Namibia has small towns. Very, very small towns.

Take for example, Seeheim.  We turned off the main road to a smaller and much rougher gravel road that followed a now defunct train line for the short distance to Seemheim, where we were to stop for lunch.  We stopped at a collection of three smallish houses and one very odd hotel, that was built with dark brick in teh style of a small fortress.  That's it.  The entire town of Seeheim. And I know this because there is a sign by the train tracks telling me so:

 


Inside the pub of an unexpected and unique hotel








And then there is Helmeringhausen, which takes longer to say than to see.  It consists of one wide street, on one side with an excellent general store, and a gas station that is really just a pump outside a tiny shack.  A very bored attendant was napping next to the pumps on the street. The other side indicates an ATM but looked like a barn, a museum and a hotel, also built with black bricks with a castle-like tessellated facade.

Helmeringhausen's main street -
that is, its only street

But perhaps our favourite thus far is very aptly named Solitaire.  We pulled up for a toilet stop and to fuel up, and found a tiny place that at least has the grace to acknolwedge its size.

The turnoff from the highway was decorated with old cars rusting decoratively among prickly pear cacti.  There was a gas station, general store, cafe, and two lodges.  whoo-hoo.