Gross Barmen

Gross Barmen is a thermal spring in thornbush country near Okahandja, with water emerging at around sixty-five degrees and cooled for use in indoor and outdoor pools. A Rhenish mission station was founded here in 1844 and the site has a long history before that as a watering place. The resort was rebuilt in the 2010s and is used mostly by Namibians for a weekend rather than by overseas visitors, which gives it a different character from the safari lodges.

History

The Herero called the place Otjikango, "large fountain". In late 1844 the Rhenish missionaries Carl Hugo Hahn and Franz Heinrich Kleinschmidt founded their first mission to the Herero here and named it Barmen, after the German town where their society had its headquarters; the ruins of the mission house can still be seen (Wikipedia, Gross Barmen).

The landscape

• The thermal pools - indoor and outdoor pools fed by the hot spring.
• The spring - water emerging at around sixty-five degrees.
• The mission site - the location of the 1844 Rhenish mission station.
• The thornbush - dry woodland and a small dam with birdlife around the resort.

When to go

March to October is the cooler window, and the hot pools are most welcome in winter. Weekends and school holidays are busy with Namibian families. Summer heat makes the outdoor pools less appealing.

Things to know

It is a spa resort rather than a natural spring you find in the bush. Standards have varied since the rebuild. Weekends can be crowded and noisy.

Nearby

Okahandja is northeast, and Windhoek is south.

Key facts