Maltahohe Namibia
gateway to Sossusvlei and Service Centre for the vast farming / ranch District of Maltahohe in central west
MALTAHÖHE NAMIBIA. gateway to Sossusvlei and Service Centre for the vast farming / ranch District of Maltahohe in central west Namibia.
There is not much to see in Maltahohe . However, it is a popular over night destination with travellers using the C14 and visiting Sossusvlei.
During the early German times this vast central area of Namibia was administered from the tiny settlement at Gibeon. The District Commissioner was Schutztruppe Captain Hennig Von Burgsdorf who, in 1899, was of the opinion that for strategic reasons there should be an outpost further to the west of the district. He looked for a suitable location and was accompanied by his wife on that particular journey. They discovered a good water spring on a hilly outcrop and decided this was 'the place' and pitched camp. Soon A small Schutztruppe outpost was established there and the captain named it Maltahohe after his wife's name
Martha, Beathe, Louise. At a later occasion when he was questioned by a Government official as to where the name came from. His reply was short and to the point, "My wife and I discovered the place and it will stand fast." There is no record of any objection to this announcement and so the little town was born.
The Maltahohe Hotel is the oldest surviving hotel in the country, opening in 1909, and the owners have wisely kept the old world facade and entrance. The modern accommodation block being at the rear of the hotel. The original bar is still there, and it is to this water-hole that in the early years of the last century Hansheinrich Von Wolf , the master of Duwisib Castle would ride to sate his thirst and need for some manly company. Legend has it that there were occasions when being deep in the booze and in high spirits he would draw his 10,5mm Reichs-Revolver and shoot at the bottles on the display shelves behind the bar. A gentleman to the end, he would pay the evenings bar accounts of his drinking companions and make good any costs of the merrymaking to the Inn-keeper.
The 'Big-South' is one of the dryer parts of Namibia. Some areas hardly receive any rain for years, and weather out here is a strange thing. There are years when it rains so much that people are isolated for days, and when it rains like this there are the Lilies. "What's the story about the Lilies down at Maltahohe?" I'm asked. OK. Here goes. About 35 km north of the town, there is a farm, and on this farm there is a large shallow pan that covers an area of about 800 hectares. (For those who use imperial measuring units, that equals the size of about 800 football fields. When it rains heavily on the farm, the pan, or vlei, as it's called down here, floods to a depth of about 40cm. Within a few short days the Lilies, that could have laid dormant for many years push their way quickly through the shallow water and bloom. It's a wondrous site that has to be seen quickly, because within a week, they have all withered away, or been munched by a multitude of elephant nosed beetles, as seen above left. Where these guys come from, I'll have to investigate, for as beetles go, they're quite a handsome site.
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