MaidMerry reviewed The Sheltering Desert by Henno Martin
Review of 'The Sheltering Desert' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This is the true story of two German geologists who hid from the Nazis in the Namibian desert during World War II. I read this book after a trip to Namibia. On a drive from Sossusvlei to Swapkomund, our guide from Tracking Namibia Safaris showed us a cave where the two geologists lived. (From the description in the book, I'm pretty sure it was the first cave.)
In spite of the problems with scanning the book to an ebook, resulting in some of the words turning to gibberish and even a page or two completely missing, I found this tale fascinating. I enjoyed learning about how the men struggled to survive and the solutions they found to the challenges they faced. It was wonderful that I could picture many of the areas in the book after having visited the region. I do wish that Martin had refrained from waxing philosophical …
This is the true story of two German geologists who hid from the Nazis in the Namibian desert during World War II. I read this book after a trip to Namibia. On a drive from Sossusvlei to Swapkomund, our guide from Tracking Namibia Safaris showed us a cave where the two geologists lived. (From the description in the book, I'm pretty sure it was the first cave.)
In spite of the problems with scanning the book to an ebook, resulting in some of the words turning to gibberish and even a page or two completely missing, I found this tale fascinating. I enjoyed learning about how the men struggled to survive and the solutions they found to the challenges they faced. It was wonderful that I could picture many of the areas in the book after having visited the region. I do wish that Martin had refrained from waxing philosophical for so many pages in several sections of the latter part of the book. While the musings of the men might be interesting in and of themselves, they were so long that they interrupted the flow of the narrative.
Overall, though, this is a good read for anyone who is a student of history or who has visited or plans to visit Southern Africa.