The road from Aus to Lüderitz in southern Namibia is one of the most striking desert routes in the country. At the beginning of the route, pastel desert shades merge with bands of bleached yellow grass creating a collage of Namib beauty. The Dikke Willem inselberg juts out of the Garub plains, the Namib wild horses dot the landscape and the evocative abandoned Garub railway station appears like a scene from a Wild West movie. As you continue towards Lüderitz and the coast, the landscape becomes increasingly barren and you feel as if you have entered another world. In the early 1900s, this 125-kilometre stretch wasn’t a scenic cruise to the coast as it is today. The Bay Road or ‘Baaiweg’, as it was known then, was a waterless ox-wagon track that challenged both man and beast. Skeletons of animals lay scattered along the route, testament to the arduous journey.
While I was recently in the area, I had a small taste of the difficulty that a trip from Aus to Lüderitz must have entailed. A group of us tried to negotiate a section of the old Baaiweg from Klein-Aus Vista through the hills towards Kubub. Even in two competent Fortuner 4x4 vehicles, we found it tough going.
At the turn of the twentieth century, this gateway from Lüderitzbucht (Lüderitz Bay) to Aus was an important transport route for the southern section of the country, conveying goods that arrived by ship. But with only a few wells and little grazing, it wasn’t for the faint-hearted. Only experienced ‘touleiers’ (wagon leaders) made it through. Sixteen oxen per ox-wagon were essential, and often two teams were needed towards the end of the route to traverse the shifting sand dunes near Kolmanskuppe.
There were approximately five hundred ox-wagons in southern Namibia at the time and most would have had to occasionally trek through the desert to collect their supplies from Lüderitz.
With only the few wells and watering holes along the route, and no fresh water available in Lüderitz, water was a scarce and expensive resource. It was brought by ship from the Cape in large barrels at a cost of between thirty and forty Reichsmark per cubic metre. The sea-water condenser at Lüderitz supplied some water, but only in limited quantities and it was often unpalatable to the oxen. There was never sufficient water to satisfy everyone and it came at a great cost. When the animals reached waterholes, it was of utmost importance to prevent them damaging the eye of the spring in their rush to the water, to ensure continued use.
The last thirty kilometres of the Baaiweg, as you neared Lüderitz, was the most trying as there was no grazing for the oxen along this inhospitable section of desert. For those who have wondered about the unusual name of the Grasplatz railway siding, where there isn’t a blade of grass in sight, this was where fodder was left for the animals so they would have some sustenance on the return journey.
Strong south-west winds routinely blew through the desert when men had to take shelter in their ox-wagons and animals would lie on the ground for protection. When the sand storms passed, the teams often needed to trek back to a waterhole to rehydrate and gain renewed strength for the road ahead.
Eventually, with an increase of supplies required by the German colonial government for the German-Nama war (1903-1907) and an increase of activity along the route, which further exacerbated the already critical water supply, a railway line was deemed necessary. It was constructed in 1906, allowing easy access to Aus and later on to Keetmanshoop. Today, more than a hundred years later, the good stretch of tar is a breeze and the demanding route is a thing of the past.
As we drove along the old Baaiweg in our air-conditioned Namiba2Go Fortuners with their comfortable suspension, I went back in time and took a trip down memory lane. I noticed a gnarled camelthorn tree alongside the road that is visible in the century-old photograph. It had hardly grown in all that time, but had managed to persevere over the years. I imagined the ox-wagon drivers of old being as hardy as the old camelthorn to survive and endure in the beautiful, but exacting, Namib Desert.
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