The colourful faces of Rehoboth & surrounds – Part 1

The intriguing history of the Rehoboth Basters inspired a trip at the end of 2025 to visit the Rehoboth Gebiet (area).

We once again collaborated with accomplished photographer Lambert Heil to offer another photographic essay of Namibia’s colourful people.

We captured their life stories, faces and smiles in splashes of colour and interesting anecdotes, exploring the rich and fabulous patchwork quilt that makes up the Namibian people.

Our journey began on a windy day when we drove southwards through the Auas Mountains to Rehoboth, an hour’s drive from Windhoek. It wasn’t long before we started to meet the area’s colourful people.

Halfway there, we turned into the small settlement of Groot Aub where a rusty old Chevy in a scrapyard caught our eye.

We entered the yard piled high with automobile parts and second-hand building material to see if it was for sale.

The owner, Hans Kauchman, quickly informed us that he was not going to part with his Chevy as his son planned to return it to its former glory.

Although we had no luck with the old car, we left with something far more valuable, a good story.

We heard how Kauchman arrived from Switzerland in the 1950s on a trip to see the world, fell in love and stayed.

He recounted the story of how his uncle organised a party, inviting some young women from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

It was at the party that he met his future wife and lived with her in Rhodesia for seven years.

He met his second wife from the Rehoboth area years later and the family now lives at Groot Aub.

When we left Kauchman and Groot Aub, we continued to Rehoboth and explored the streets on the outskirts of the town.

In the old Rehobothsettlement we met Albertha Willmore walking down a dusty street dotted with vibrant green prosopis and camelthorn trees.

“I’m born and bred in Rehoboth,” she told us proudly, the wind blowing her hair into a halo around her head before she disappeared into the hot October day.

Next, we met Moesha van Schalkwyk, a pupil, who shared her lovely smile with us, and 11-year-old Anastacia Montzinger whose face caught the afternoon sunshine as it lit up the orange and blue curlers that pulled her hair into submission.

The sun was starting to dip in the sky as we drove towards the Tropic of Capricorn, 20km south of Rehoboth, and turned westward towards our destination for the night, the Capricorn Guest Farm.

We couldn’t resist making one last stop when we saw a donkey-cart travelling on the sandy track next to the tar road, and met the happy occupants, Witbeen Witbeen and Jakob Araeb.

The donkey cart, drawn by donkeys Brown, Satan and Rooisand, was heavily laden with wood.

Ben told us how they collect wood every second day to sell, their load earning them N$400.

The light bathed the southern Namibian countryside in gold as we waved them goodbye.

Soon, the turnoff to the guest farm appeared ahead and we made it just in time to enjoy a cold beer and watch the ruby sun set into a landscape of long bleached yellow grass, the perfect ending to a good Namibian day. – Padlangs

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