Augrabies National Park and kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Augrabies National Park and kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Its April and time for a break !

So, this year we are heading into the Northern Cape Priovince http://experiencenortherncape.com/visitor/.

We, myself and my wife as well as my brother and his wife were travelling from Johannesburg and Pretoria. We had decided to meet at the junction of the N14 and R26 (opposite Cradelstone Mall).

Its quiet a long way from Johannesburg and Pretoria, through to Augrabies. So we decided to take a break at a resort just outside Kuruman. Because of this, we also decided to leave 2 days earlier, on the Friday, and spend two nights at the resort.

However, we left Gauteng early because we planned to stop off at Barberspan. According to the web site :  "The Barberspan Bird Sanctuary is a huge 2000 ha body of water located between Delareyville and Sannieshof. The Reserve is a pioneer in ornithological research. Bird Life South Africa has declared it an important national birding site.

Given then that it is also a RAMSAR Convention-accredited wetland of international importance for migratory birds and waterfowl, it is well worth a visit."

Well we battled to find the entrance gate and arrived at a very, very run down hotel on the dam shores. They directed us back, about 1km. We eventually found the gate.

The Barberspan Bird Sanctuary is in a sorry state. There were loads of birds, all nesting in a few trees. The trees were full of dead and dying birds, some hanging from branches. Beneath the trees there were also dead birds. We were not impressed and Sue, in fact, sent a mail to Barberspan. A reply was received, but we definitely wont be rushing back there.

The roads in the reserve were good. There were also some campers along the shores of the dam.

We stopped off at a Pad Stal, but due to it being Good Friday, it was closed (so were all the others we tried to stop at).

However, we finally arrived at our overnight destination. The resort that we had selected was Red Sands Country Lodge. http://www.redsands.co.za/

Its 15 Km west (towards Upington) of Kuruman and on the N14, which is the main road from Johannesburg to Kuruman. We arrived at the entrance and you have to buzz to reception who open for you. Its about a 3km drive on red sand roads to reception.
The lodge is really very nice and we had a two bed roomed chalet for our stay there.

The lodge is located in a game farm and there are plenty of roads that one can drive around. There are also some 4x4 roads and we tried most of them out over the 2 days. We also found that there was a bird hide near a small dam. Here we spent a few hours viewing some of the bird species that can be seen in the area. The resort also has Fallow Deer and we did see a few of these as well.

Entrance gate to Red Sands

The bird hide

View from the top of one of the 4x4 drives. This is made to look like a windmill, but its in fact a communications tower. The views were stunning.

The chalet

Some of the birds spotted

After a lovely relaxing two night at Red Sands, we departed for Augrabies Falls National Park. The trip took us through Upington, where we stopped off for a few supplies.

 Augrabies National Park https://www.sanparks.org/parks/augrabies/

We arrived at Augrabies early afternoon and the reception was good efficient and friendly. We were soon all set up and ready for a walk to the falls.

We had tried to search the web to see the volume of water flowing over the falls. The Orange river was not as full as we had expected. Nevertheless the falls were still an amazing site. There are now wooden walkways all along the side and viewing decks at the main falls as well. It was a nice relaxing walk.
Some facts, perhaps of interest :
Augrabies_Falls

Augrabies Falls

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Augrabies Falls
Augrabies Falls
Location	Northern Cape, South Africa
Coordinates	28°35′29″S 20°20′27″ECoordinates: 28°35′29″S 20°20′27″E
Type	Cascade
Total height	56 metres (183 ft)
Average width	24 metres (80 ft)
Watercourse	Orange River
Average flow rate	313 cubic metres (11,050 cu ft)

The Augrabies Falls /ɔːˈxrɑːbiːz/ is a waterfall on the Orange River, South Africa, within the Augrabies Falls National Park. The falls are around 183 feet (56 m) in height.^[1] Some sources cite an approximate height of 480 feet; this is actually the height from the base of the canyon to the top of the walls, not that of the falls themselves.^[1] The original Khoikhoi residents named the waterfall "Ankoerebis" — "place of big noises" — from which the Trek Boers, who settled here later on, derived the name, "Augrabies".^[2]

The falls have recorded 7,800 cubic metres (280,000 cu ft) of water every second in floods in 1988 (and 6,800 cubic metres (240,000 cu ft) in the floods of 2006). This is over three times the average high season flow rate of Niagara Falls of 2,400 cubic metres (85,000 cu ft) per second, more than four times Niagara's annual average, and greater than Niagara's all-time record of 6,800 cubic metres (240,000 cu ft) per second.

The gorge at the Augrabies Falls is 240 metres (800 ft) deep and 18 kilometres (10 mi) long, and is an impressive example of granite erosion.

We were camping at Augrabies for a few nights, so we also decided to do the drive trail that the park has on offer. It was amazing to see the contrast. The barren and dry rock landscape, and then we were also driving through reeds and running riverbeds. That was quiet amazing !

The drives have numerous view points to stop off at and you can get some stunning views of the gorge
.

We also climbed up Moon Rock.

Augrabies Falls National Park

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A prominent landmark in the park is Moon Rock, a large exfoliation dome measuring around 700 metres (2,300 ft) by 100 metres (330 ft) and 30 metres (98 ft) high.^[1][8]

We packed up from Augrabies and were heading to Kgalagadi. This entailed going back to Upington and then heading up the R360 to the park. This is now a very nice tarred road.

On the drive up from Upington we stopped off at the small town of Askam. The main reason was because we have been advised that the petrol situation at Twee Rivieren was not good and that we should fill up at Askam. We did. In addition, we also stopped off at the cafe and had a good coffee and cake.

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park https://www.sanparks.org/parks/kgalagadi/

We arrived at the park reception and were soon through with the formalities and ready to select our campsites. There are not many trees, I suppose that can be expected. But we did find a little shade and each site has a power point and braai. Ablutions are communal.
These were ok, except for the fact that there was no hot water. I did complain about that fact, but was informed its because children play around the geysers and break them ! Quiet a lame excuse from SanParks, I thought.

Our 4 days were all spent at Twee Rivieren camp. We had originally booked for 5 nights, but Sue and I had to come back earlier as our daughter was coming out from Scotland for a visit.

The roads within the park are all dirt roads. We did see a grader, but the fellow obviously drives around with the blade up. The roads are so badly corrugated that even with the tyres deflated to 1.1 bar, the experience is still teeth shattering!!

We did see quiet a few animals. Two sightings were amazing. These were a snake in a tree as well as some owls in a tree.

The snake :

The Owls

There was also an incident of a bird of prey catching and eating a snake

The lion sighting

Ostrich with young chicks

Many other sightings

We packed up, leaving John and Anne there, so that we could had home to meet Jenny (arriving from Scotland). John and Anne were also going onto Witsand Kalahari for two nights.

Our trip home was great. We stopped off at Red Sands Kalahari again. Except this time we camped for the one night. The Fallow Deer kept us entertained most of the evening with their rutting and snorting.
The camp site is good, and we had a private ablution which was excellent.

A fantastic trip !

Until next time.