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Duwisib Castle |
To be honest: Duwisib Castle seems not to fit in this region. There are neither any appropriate roads in its environment nor an at least little settlement. It’s mysterious to us, what could have been the reason for the constructor Hansheinrich von Wolff to build a medieval castle just in here, in a barren and abandoned area at the edge of the Namib. However, maybe it was exactly this loneliness which encouraged Wolff to instruct the architect Sander with the construction of the castle in 1908.
Wolff’s aim was to expand the farm from 20.000 hectares to 150.000 hectares. He reached 35.000 hectares. The government didn’t want to commit to him more. The reason: Nobody could manage such a large region. The still very huge area was enough to manage a farm with cattle and horse breed, wool and Africa sheep.
He and his American wife Jayta Humphries had fun for a long time, but not because of the farm. When the First World War broke out he volunteered. That’s why he died in 1916. Then his wife left the castle. The left horses could be a possible origin of the wild horses, which have lived for more then hundred years in the Namib.
We could have had a look at those, too. That means, only optionally: There is a man-made stand post, which is to secure the survival of the horses, but we can’t be sure if the animals are really there, then. Moreover, only two or three people of our group wanted to go there. However, mountains & sea promised us a free time afternoon. That’s why we were glad that nobody wanted to see the horses, because that would have been a detour of about 200 km. So no free time would have been left.
The castle itself is arranged like in former times and completely redecorated by now. Well, the oriel in the upper floor creaks a bit weirdly when you enter it, but otherwise everything looks quite neat. From the foyer we attain the inner courtyard of the castle. We reach the chambers of the castle over the arcades, while the garden is shadowed by some trees and palms. An old stove bench in the living quarters shows us that it can turn cool in here, too.
In other respects the inner life is little spectacular. Though the arrangement comes from the colonial era, it derives from Germany and that’s why it is quite familiar to us. However, there’s the basement, too. At first sight it appears empty. If you look about a little bit you can discover bats soon, which oversleep the day in here. And, by the way: The bats don’t want to be photographed with photoflash. With every picture they get smaller and smaller…
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