Chapter 916 Walvis Bay Railway
The desert is solitary and the sun is setting in the long river. The Namib Desert in Southwest Africa is not inconsistent at all. With the completion of other main line railways, East Africa has finally begun whale watching. Construction of the Bay Harbor Railway.
Although it is close to the sea, the Namib Desert does not enjoy the nourishment of Atlantic rain. Like Chile and Peru, vegetation relies on fog to obtain its main water source.
"Leder, am I dazzled? That's an elephant!" Vasily, a railway worker, stared at a group of elephants passing by on the road next door and said in amazement.
Walvis Bay has a direct road to Mongu City. This road is naturally built in the hinterland of the desert, and the Walvis Bay Railway is also built along the road, which means it is also in the desert, so Vasily almost I thought I was hallucinating.
"What's all this fuss about? That's a desert elephant. It's different from the grassland elephants we usually see. I remember there's also a forest elephant in the Congo Basin, so you still haven't seen enough." Leder introduced to Vasily quite proudly.
"There is all sand around here. What do they eat to maintain such a large size?" Vasily didn't believe it. After all, Vasily had seen a lot of elephants on the grassland, but there was no shortage of those elephants. Food!
“Look carefully, are these elephants a little smaller than the elephants we usually see? Desert elephants mainly live on shrubs in the desert. Although the Namib Desert is dry, it has heavy fog. , there are many vegetations that rely on this to develop a way of survival that is completely different from other desert plants in the world."
"Anyway, you will understand it after you stay in the Namib Desert for a long time. I also heard from some old-timers. Speaking of which, I realized this more intuitively later when the Walvis Bay Highway was built. Not only elephants, but also lions, zebras and other animals you have seen in the grassland area in the Namib Desert will become accustomed to it in the future. "
Of course, Leder said it casually, but his next move shocked Vasily.
Leder took out his pistol, loaded the bullet skillfully, and then shot in the direction of the elephants.
"Bang..."
Of course, Ryder just shot a gun in the air above the elephants, scaring the elephants away.
"Why did you suddenly shoot? You scared me!" Vasily said with some resentment.
"Of course it's for safety. Elephants are dangerous animals. If there weren't too many of them and we didn't have enough manpower, I wouldn't just fire a blank shot to warn."
The sound of gunfire attracted the attention of the rear guard, who also asked Leder what happened.
"It's okay, Hope, it's just that there was a herd of desert elephants in front of us just now. I fired a gun to scare them away."
"Don't be so reckless about this next time, although in your hands We have weapons, but we still leave this dangerous matter to us,” Hope reminded him with surprise, “Look, the black people next to you are too scared to work.”
As an East African. Railway workers will actually be paired with black laborers as substitutes. Only technically difficult jobs will be done by their own people.
"Don't worry! Hope, these black people just want to be lazy. After all, they are not that group of wild animals and don't know what guns are for."
"Very good, as long as the task can be completed within the construction period, you can decide what's appropriate. After all, if black people riot, it will be quite a headache. Don't think that if you have a weapon in your hand, you will be foolproof. I have thought so before. "
What Hope said is of course true. Today's black people in East Africa are no longer "uninformed" natives. They have also come into contact with a lot under the management of East Africa. New business.
For example, guns, which were previously considered "monsters", have returned to their correct perception. They are weapons used by East Africans. As long as you pull the trigger, you can become a "man of the motherland". It has to be said that the black indigenous people have also "opened their eyes to the world" with the development of East Africa, but this has also caused the East Africans to "fall off the altar" in the eyes of the indigenous people.
It turns out that they are not an iron wall, they just have better weapons to defeat us. With this understanding, many black people naturally take risks.
Of course, this has also strengthened the determination of the East African government. In the future, these "scourges" must not be allowed to remain in East Africa. They should be allowed to cause disasters in other "civilized worlds"!
"Hope, we have been working together for a long time. You also know that I was in Southwest Africa before. I naturally understand the truth behind this and will never cause any trouble." Ryder assured Hope .
Later, he asked Hope: "Is there any specific news about the railway construction in the rear? I wonder if they have completed it? I just want to finish this section in the Namib Desert as soon as possible, here It’s too painful to stay.”
What Leder is talking about is naturally the plateau section of the Walvis Bay Railway. The Walvis Bay Railway is divided into two parts, one is the coastal Namib Desert, and the other is Houma. Sri Lanka Plateau.
The railway construction in the Homas Plateau section is related to the progress of the project in the Namib Desert section. After all, only after the Homas Plateau section is completed can building materials be transported from the inland faster.
"You don't need to worry about this. There are currently less than fifty kilometers left for the railway to connect with the Namib Desert. Now that Windhoek has been identified as the new capital of Southwest Africa in the future, the project is progressing very quickly. ”
In the past, the political center of Southwest Africa was naturally Walvis Bay, and the military center was Swakopmund to the north of Walvis Bay. However, with the construction of Windhoek in East Africa, it relied on its superior Due to its geographical and climatic conditions, it has become an "upstart" city in Southwest Africa.
Windhoek was the capital of Namibia in its previous life. Historically, the Germans established the city there in 1890. In 1892, it became the capital of German Southwest Africa at that time. At the beginning, the Germans established the city there. The colonial capital was Swakopmund.
Now that East Africa has established Windhoek as the capital of Southwest Africa, it is actually consistent with Germany's previous approach. It is located in the center of Southwest Africa and has certain agricultural planting conditions. It is better than Sri Lanka which only relies on subsidies from East Africa. Wakopmund and Walvis Bay are much stronger.
In the past, Walvis Bay and Swakopmund were obviously more important and were the only large-scale west coast ports in East Africa. However, with the occupation of Angola by East Africa, there were Luanda, Cabinda and other newer ports on the west coast of East Africa. A good choice, so the status of the two places has naturally declined.
Of course, the importance of the two places mainly depends on their economic value, but they are still very important strategically. After all, they are related to East Africa’s main maritime strategic deployment in the southwest region, and they are one of the areas that the East African navy attaches great importance to.
Of course, with the development of mineral resources in Southwest Africa, places such as Walvis Bay may turn around in the future, but now Southwest Africa is actually a "bottomless pit" among East African countries.
Just like the Walvis Bay Railway, except for Walvis Bay and Wendeke, only the regional economies outside Southwest Africa are relatively developed.
In the next few years, the Walvis Bay Railway will not be able to increase the flow of people and freight. After all, there is only a little fishery output in Walvis Bay. As for Wendeke, it has just started. The entire Southwest Africa Sparsely populated.
So for a long time in the future, the Walvis Bay railway operation will inevitably suffer losses. If it were not a country like East Africa, it would be difficult to have the power to build a railway in Southwest Africa, which is the highest-level trunk railway. After all, the East African government has never Not entirely from an economic perspective.
This is a bit like the Siberian Railway in Tsarist Russia. The Siberian Railway is still under construction and is still far from being fully completed.
Forty percent of the Walvis Bay Railway in East Africa has been completed, which also shows the gap between the two countries. Although the Walvis Bay Railway is far less than the Siberian Railway in length, it is not at all difficult. It’s bad, but the gray cattle of Tsarist Russia probably can’t stand the horrific weather in Siberia, while the black slaves of East Africa can tolerate the Namib Desert.
(End of this chapter)