After a fabulous (but way to short) stay with Jill, we are on our way to South Africa. Driving through the south-western Kalahari in December is hot hot hot – little did we know we would soon feel cold cold cold. We reach the R of SA via the excellent new Middelpits / Bokspits road that luckily is still lined with Camelthorn trees (pods are underneath the bros).
The small border post is so small that there isn’t even a ‘leaving Botswana’ office; we have to drive back to Bokspits to get our passports stamped. While crossing the border thunder, lightning and rain starts – as well that’s considered a lucky sign around here.
We spend a cold & stormy night at a beautiful lodge with a marvellous pool and a horrible campsite before we reach Augrabies National Park with its falls.
“As the Oranje River approaches Augrabies Falls it divides itself into numerous channels before cascading down the 56 meter high waterfall. The river then continues its path through an 18 kilometres gorge.”
On top of the falls the whole park is a truly great place – have been there before, will go there again!
Loads of rocks, loads of klipdassies.
During our short game drive through the park we do spot some game, but we fail to show Henk-i the biggest antelope of all: eland.
One of the good things of Augrabies is that you can hike – most parks only offer (self) drives. So we took all the precautions (wear sunscreen, a hat, good shoes, and carry a lot of water) and went for it. Another good thing is that not many people are into walking if they don’t have to. So we could fully enjoy the fact that there was a lot of water, and dive in one of the little wild streams.
On the road again – driving south towards Namakwaland and the West Coast.
