Keetmanshoop

Good place to stay over. Friendly service (even by the customs /police that "detained" my two daugters while I was goinh to fetch their passports. Plenty to see in and around. The tree at the garage in front of the man/sheep statue still a puzzle ("'alaudia" according to Prof Anne Rasa of Kalahari Trails). The Quiver Tree forest very interesting. Will return for a longer stay to see more.

Friendly people

We were not able to see the surroundings of Keetmanshoop as our destination was Long Beach in the Erongo Region and only spent a very short while in Keetmanshoop and loved it!!

Keetmanshoop is a very interesting town both from the point of view of peace and quiet that you can enjoy that fror the pleasant climate,even in winter. The surroundings are worth seeing: the fascinating area of ​​Kokerboom Forest and of the giants playground offers a bewildering landscape that arouses strong astonishment. We stayed at Gessert's Guest House where you can find beautiful and artistic rooms such as the best breakfast you might find in Africa.

Keetmanshoop impresses as an oasis en route in the southern part of Namibia. It is a beautiful ordinary town with beautiful ordinary people. While visiting the Rheinish Mission Church Museum, a "dead normal" thing happened to friends of mine when two scoundrils tried to break into their new double cab vehicle. Fortunately the alarm was triggered and they fled. Fairly upset my friends went to the lovely Gessert's Guest House, where they were booked, and the very kind owner took them to a local panelbeater to repair a broken window. The bad news was that no such window was available in Keetmanshoop. The absolutely unexpected good news, the owner of the business removed a window from his own similar new vehicle and replaced the broken window of total strangers on tour in Namibia. Apart from the many good qualities and characteristics of Keetmans, this gesture of unselfish kindness underlines the warmth and heartiness peculiar to the town Keetmanshoop and it's people.

Keetmanshoop (translates from Afrikaans as 'the hope of Keetman') is the administrative centre of Namibia's largest region, Karas. It is 500km south of Windhoek and its southern central location make it a natural traffic junction, as well as the economic centre for the entire south of Namibia. The Karas region covers some 161,000km², or nearly 1/5th of the country's total surface. Karas is named after the mountains of the same name, south-east of the town. As could be expected of a regional hub Keetmanshoop offers the wary traveler several accommodation choices as well as banks, shops and petrol stations. Keetmanshoop has a desert climate (BWh, according to the Köppen climate classification), with hot summers and mild winters. The average annual precipitation is 147 mm (6 in). The town is situated in a semi-arid area, normally receiving an annual average rainfall of only 152 millimeters (6.0 in). Before the colonial era, the settlement was known as ǂNuǂgoaes or Swartmodder, both of which means "Black Marsh" and indicated the presence of a spring in the area. The first white settler, Guilliam Visagie, arrived here in 1785. In 1860 the Rheinish Missionary Society founded a mission there to Christianize the local Nama. The first missionary, Johann Georg Schröder, arrived in Keetmanshoop on April 14, 1866, which is now marked as the founding date of Keetmanshoop. The mission station was named after the German trader Johann Keetman who supported the mission financially, but never actually visited the place himself. The Keetmanshoop Museum is located in the Rheinish Mission Church, a building dating back to 1895. The church was declared an historic monument in 1978 and is a well-known landmark. Its unique combination of Gothic architecture cast in African stone makes it one of the architectural masterpieces in the country and a popular tourist attraction. Other notable buildings are the Keetmanshoop tourist information, the former Imperial Post Office from 1910, and the railway station building. Situated 38km north-east of the town is the Mesosaurus Fossil and Quiver Tree Dolorite Park, set in an area that includes the Mesosaurus Fossil Site, the Ouivert Tree Forest and eroded dolorite rock formations. Other highlights in the region include self-drive visits to the Naute Dam, the Mesosaurus fossils, the Giant's Playground, the Kokerboom (Quiver Tree) Forest, the Fish River Canyon and the largest registered Lithop’s collection founded at Alte Kalköfen Lodge that is situated 100 km west of Keetmanshoop en-route to Lüderitz.

We loved our walk through the Giants Playground and Kokerboom forest but thought the entry fee of R55 each was rather high so would not repeat this activity again.

The scenery and fauna and flora are unique and amazed us.

A friendly and very clean town.