A Thundering Waterfall in a dry, Desert Landscape continue… September 30, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Cape Town, South Africa, Tour, Trails, Travel Insurance, Trip, Victoria Falls, Zambia , trackbackWalks and drives
From here there are a number of walks and drives that you can take to outlying viewpoints. One of the most popular walks is along the 2,5 km path leading to the Arrow Head viewsite. From here you can look out over the rapids that career along the bottom of the gorge far below. For the more energetic there is the Klipspringer Hiking Trail which runs for 26km along the southern bank of the river. This is a three-day hike and walkers stay overnight in huts along the route. The trail passes Ararat, a granite rock that offers a magnificent view along the gorge, and also Moon Rock, which provides panoramic views over the whole park.
Walking through the park, you will discover that there is a far richer variety of animal and plant life than one would expect in such a barren landscape. Camel-thorn trees (Acacia erioloba) and kokerbome (Aloe dichotoma) are the most prominent plants, while the fauna includes the klipspringer, springbok, a number of smaller mammals and 150 bird species. The park is particularly rich in reptiles. At the edge of the gorge you can often see the beautifully coloured red-tailed rock lizard (Platysaurus capensis) and various geckos and agamas. In the hot summer months, you will frequently see snakes basking on the rocks — the Cape cobra (Naja nivea), the spitting cobra (Naja mossambica mossambica), or the ubiquitous puff-adder (Bitis arietans arietans).
Treacherous granite walls
As a safety measure, chest-high fences have been erected at most of the popular observation points, but there will always be over-eager tourists who tempt fate by climbing over the fence for a slightly closer look. Since the proclamation of the park in 1966, some twenty people have died after losing their balance on the edge of the gorge and slipping down its steep erosion-polished granite walls.
To slip over the edge spells almost certain death, but occasionally miracles do happen. In 1979 a Scandinavian visitor lost his footing and slid the whole way down the rock face. The friction was so great that his clothes were ripped from his body. He suffered lacerations and broken bones, but was still able to clamber out of the river onto a rock. From this point he was saved by park wardens. Even his wallet containing R400 was found on a ledge.
The open nature of the countryside in the park, and the clear light, offer rich opportunities to the photographer, and eager cameramen have tried many stunts to capture the falls from a new angle. One of the first of these photographic adventurers was an acrobat named Lulu Farini, who toured the region with his stepfather Guillermo. He photographed the falls from many angles, but could find no way of capturing the main fall from the bottom of the gorge. Eventually he set his sights on an outcrop of rock about 100 metres down the sheer rock face — a point that could be reached only with ropes. After joining some kudu-hide ox-straps to the rope they had, the two men lowered the camera equipment, then climbed over the edge. From the outcrop below, Lulu made two exposures of the falls, before climbing back ‘hand over hand, quicker than we had come down, for we were now sure of the rope’s strength’.
Year-round attractions
The park can be visited at any time of year, and each season has its own particular attractions. Spring and autumn are the best seasons for hiking, as the temperatures in summer and winter are too extreme for comfort. The falls, however, are at their most spectacular in summer, between October and January, when the greatest flood of water rushes down from the highlands of Lesotho and the eastern Cape. (If you are planning to photograph the falls, note that they are best captured in the afternoon when the sunlight catches them — often creating a bright rainbow in the spray.)
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