The Northern Cape has a couple of interesting places to visit. One of them is indeed the Augrabies waterfalls. Unfortunately, I haven’t learned so much about the Oranje River in school. However, the most important thing was, that the river is the biggest in South Africa. Also, the river comes from Lesotho’s Drakenbergs and crosses South Africa from east to west.
The Augrabies Waterfalls locating in the Augrabies National Park in the northwest of South Africa, close to the Namibian border. The Augrabies National Park is a game park and includes the Augrabies falls with its canyon. The Northern Cape is huge and the distances are far. It’s three a half-hour ride by car via Upington to Augrabies from Kathu. The road leads sometimes along grape yards and the river banks in the Oranje valley.
The Augrabies park is an amazing place. It’s a wild landscape with the Oranje river gorge in between. The gorge is a massive granite formation and shaped by the Oranje River since prehistoric times.
The main camp with reception, restaurant, and a little shop is the starting point. From here the adventure starts. The well-signposted ways to platforms installed along the gorge are safe and easy to walk. It takes just a few minutes to walk to get a breathtaking view. From the platforms, I got an overwhelming view over the gorge with its waterfalls and the rocky landscape around.
Well prepared and maintained facilities middle in the nowhere surprising really. Actually, the waterfall is a cascade of several stages. That’s obviously because of the seasonal low water level of the Oranje River. Currently, it’s wintertime in South Africa. Therefore it’s the dry season in the Northern Cape. Anyway, the river still seething and foaming and finally flows down the rocks into the huge gorge.