THUNDERING AUGRABIES FALLS

Few sights take your breath away and are as tremendous or a sound as deafening as water plunging down the 56-m Augrabies Waterfall when the Orange River is in flood. Indeed, the recent heavy rainfall in the Northern Cape helped the ‘Place of Great Noise’ live up to its Khoi San name, 'Aukoerebis'.

When we heard this was happening, we managed to fit in 3 nights in the Augrabies National Park near Kakamas and it was overwhelming to observe this vast amount of water roaring furiously down the narrow gorge and increasing in volume every day. Fantastically scary, a total adrenalin rush before 7am when we watched the sunrise over the canyon, filtering its golden light through the mist. We were equally seduced by the rapidly changing movements of the water which was unnervingly pulling us in.

Guy looked so small in front of this raging river on the platform ahead of me.

Watching the colourful Bradley’s flat lizards performing acrobatic leaps on the steep rock faces to catch black flies was most entertaining. We explored this rugged rocky region, were particularly fascinated by the geology of Echo Corner and found ourselves at Ararat’s grand vista for sunset when the last light played on the water at the bottom of the gorge in shimmery shades of silver and pink.

 

MOST VERDANT KGALAGADI

 In the second half of January, from our very first outing we drove through many clouds of dancing butterflies and this joyous sight soon represented the essence of this trip.

The good rains of late had transformed the desert landscape of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park of the Northern Cape into verdant expanses where its camel thorn trees were laden with fresh seed pods and the classic views of the Kalahari red dunes are at the moment, covered with a great variety of beautiful grass to their very tops.

We were told that it was 40 years since the last time the park had been so green.

Everyone made use of the long puddles of water in the roads, from birds bathing and drinking to springbok and jackals nervously lapping a few mouthfuls of water between the passing cars. Butterflies congregating by the hundreds to suck moisture from the muddy edges were lifting gracefully, like fairy dust on this most unusual sight.
With such abundance all around, all forms of life were thriving, youngster's everywhere and gemsbok belly deep in the tall grasses under blue skies where magnificent white clouds built up all day. We enjoyed many great sightings of animals and birds and could often observe their behavior at leisure in the sweltering mid-summer heat.
It was a memorable experience toasted with a glass of champagne at Kieliekrankie, our favorite secluded accommodation on a dune ridge with a grandiose view.

We feel privileged to have seen this.