Amazing South Africa Safari, following the Orange River to the ‘Place of Great Noise’ continue… October 3, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Map, Rail Pass, Restaurant, South Africa, Tickets, Tour, Trails, Trip , trackbackAugrabies Falls National Park
Close to the entrance there is an information centre where you can obtain a free booklet on the park. There is also a shop that sells a few tinned goods, firewood, refreshments, wine and beer — and petrol can be obtained.
There is a restaurant next to the shop, and picnic places nearby — set among trees along one of the river’s channels. There are braai sites here, with water and toilets. (No drinking water is available elsewhere in the park.) There are also two swimming pools here, and a play pool for younger children.
There are several roads in the park leading to out-of-the-way corners. Two places worth visiting are Ararat and Oranjekom, and the road to both passes a 1 km side- road that leads to the base of the bare Moon Rock. At Ararat there are fine views up the rugged gorge, but there is little shade. At Oranjekom there is a roofed shelter with cement tables and benches — able to accommodate 30 to 40 picnickers — and there are also toilets. From Oranjekom there are wide views over the river ‘kom’ (basin), between towering cliffs.
Since the re-introduction of black rhino on the north bank, visitors are no longer permitted to cross the suspension bridge above the falls, but you are allowed to walk onto the bridge to obtain a good ‘midstream’ view.
CHRISTIAAN SCHRODER’S LEGACY
One of the main crossing points on the Orange River became known to the early European explorers as Olyvenhoutsdrift (olive wood drift), and a missionary, Christiaan Schröder, established a mission station here in 1871. In 1884 the name of the small settlement that had grown around the mission was changed to Upington, in honour of Sir Thomas Upington, the new Prime Minister of the Cape Colony.
One year before the name change, the first of an intricate system of irrigation canals had been constructed, and Upington now serves as the centre of a rich farming district — thanks to the abundant waters of the Orange. Fruit, vegetables, cotton and wine are produced here.
Augrabies to Upington
Retrace your outgoing route as far as Keimoes, but when you reach the traffic lights in Keimoes, continue straight ahead instead of turning left towards Upington — noting your kms at the lights. After 900m the road surface changes to gravel, and at 1,5 km you cross a single-lane bridge. At 2,4 km turn right for the Keimoes Nature Reserve.
Drive slowly from here, as the road is bumpy and becomes steep as it approaches Tierberg (tiger or leopard mountain). From the summit of Tierberg there are superb views over Keimoes and the irrigated lands nearby — the great expanse of green being in sharp contrast with the landscape near the Augrabies Falls, where the river is channelled into a rocky ravine.
Return from Tierberg to the traffic lights in Keimoes, and turn right. Stay on this main road (R27) the whole way to Upington, passing on your right the road on which you entered from Kanoneiland •
A BATTLE IN THE DESERT
World War I began in August 1914, and in September the government of the Union of South Africa decided to invade what was then German South West Africa. An invasion force was assembled near Upington, with 6000 men encamped south of Kakamas.
The German commander, Major Franke, decided to attack rather than wait to be invaded. At that time the Orange River was crossed by means of two ponts which were heavily guarded by the South African forces. These ponts were the target of the leader of the German expedition, Major Ritter.
Shortly after dawn on 4 Feburary 1915, four German field guns opened fire, at a range of over 1 km, from a position near the site of the present monument. The rest of Ritter’s forces, who had advanced closer to the river, opened fire on the troops guarding the ponts. The battle lasted six hours — the Germans being forced eventually to withdraw, with a loss of seven lives.
The simple monument was erected in 1960 by the Volksbund Deutschen Kriegs-graberfürsorge, and the remains of the six soldiers whose graves could be found were re- interred here.
KANONEILAND
This is probably the best known of the many islands in the Orange River, and it has been occupied as an agricultural settlement since 1926. The island received its name during the Second Northern Border War of 1878-9, fought between the Cape Colony forces and the Koranna, led by Klaas Pofadder.
It is thought that the island takes its name from a cannon that Pofadder and his men constructed here from a hollowed-out aloe stem. This was loaded with gunpowder and stones, and pointed at the Cape Colony forces. When fired, the cannon exploded; killing several Koranna men.
THE GOLDEN PEACH FROM KAKAMAS
For many years experts at the Elsenburg Agricultural College near Stellenbosch struggled to find a variety of peach that would be suitable for canning — a potential fortune in fruit lay rotting on the ground unable to be preserved.
Eventually a former Elsenburg student, A D Collins, found a promising peach tree near Kakamas. Evidently a natural mutation — the peach proved to have all the qualities needed for successful canning. The newly discovered variety was carefully propagated, and from a single tree has come 75 per cent of all the peach trees now supplying South Africa’s giant canning industry.
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