Kolmanskop, once a booming diamond town, was abandoned in 1956. I've wanted to visit this ghost town ever since my friend Tiffany sent me a photo she found on the internet. I'm obviously not a professional photographer, but I know enough to realize that a place like this is a photographer's dream! You have to purchase a permit to visit this town, and Falconer and I splurged a bit to purchase the photographer's pass. This meant we could enter the area before 8am. We rose early, and beat the sun to Kolmanskop by a full hour. We'll both admit that it was pretty eerie being in the middle of the desert before the sun. The fog was so dense we could hardly see ten feet in front of us. We munched on Falconer's homemade granola bars waiting on the morning light. Finally, we stepped out into the cool desert air to begin our exploration. Other than a few springboks (and whatever hidden creatures we didn't see), we were the only ones around.

We went back to Kolmanskop later that morning for an official tour. In its prime, the town boasted a casino, theater, bowling alley, butchery, bakery, soda water and lemonade factory, swimming pool, schoolhouse, and a hospital with the first x-ray machine in the Southern Hemisphere. Over 700 families lived in the town and around 800 Ovambo contract workers. The room below is an example of the décor back then, with original furniture. Below that is the ice factory. Back when the town was thriving, each resident would be given a block of ice for their refrigerator (what the man is opening in the photo) and a jug of lemonade and cool drinks.

Learning about the history of the diamond industry in Kolmanskop was very interesting. This small town provided 20% of the world's diamonds in its first year of operation. For some reason, what fascinated me the most was hearing about all the crazy ways people used to try and smuggle diamonds out of the area. Some would stash them in secret compartments they carved into their boots, some tried flying them out with pigeons, some hid them in various body parts, and so on. I think my favorite idea is shooting them out with crossbows!