EN ROUTE 17 



At length the old Freda Woermann was ready 

 to start, and though she was but a small boat, the 

 run up the coast was not unpleasant. True, the 

 old Freda was a terrible roller. A much-travelled 

 fellow-passenger assured me that a ship could not 

 be said to roll until the trunks came charging out 

 from under the bunks, and even this test was 

 easily passed by the Freda. 



With the desire to see as much as possible of 

 G.S.W. we landed at Luderitzbucht, the plan 

 being to go right round to Windhuk by rail, and 

 to purchase there stock and plant, and also, if 

 necessary, stores. From Windhuk we proposed 

 to travel by rail to Grootfontein or Tsumeb, one 

 or other of these places to be the starting-point 

 of our trek. Little trouble was made at the 

 Customs, to our pleasant surprise. The special 

 permit from the magistrate required in the case 

 of travellers with more than one rifle was obtained 

 without difficulty, and another pleasant surprise 

 was the discovery that the Customs duties were 

 comparatively light. Luderitzbucht cannot boast 

 of charm, for the sandy and rocky coast is quite 

 bare of all vegetation ; but the houses built of 

 stone and cement all look wonderfully solid and 

 well constructed, vastly different from our own 

 wooden township buildings in Australia. 



The hotels too were quite good. The town, of 

 course, depends for its prosperity almost entirely 

 on the diamond mines around; a remarkably 

 lucky find for Germany these mines, for without 



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