Day 33 – Augrabies Falls National Park to Upington – 11 October

As we had a lot of time today, we took it easy – even though we were both awake early and Brian went traipsing round the falls to get some sunrise pictures. I don’t think I’ve ever taken as make sunset and sunrise pictures in my life as on this trip!! I suppose it helps that we’re asleep by 9pm every night as it means we’re awake early enough to catch sunrise which is not the normal state of affairs for me! Shows you what lack of television can do though.

We went driving though the rest of the park, which is supposedly a game park with giraffes, eland and the like, though we only saw a few klipspringers. The park is a lot bigger than the bit we drove through so I can only assume that’s where the majority of the animals are. The drive was very good and made me realise that the falls are almost the least interesting part of the park, even though for a lot of people it will be the only bit they see. We had some amazing views of the gorge in which the river runs, as well as the strange rocky and mountainous landscape. About 10km from the main camp there is Oranjekom Gorge Cottage (Oranjekom is also a lookout point) which is billed as a ‘honeymoon’ cottage and it has spectacular views of the gorge – somewhere well worth keeping in mind if you are visiting Augrabies Falls.

We drove around for a few hours and then took the trip to my niece and her husbands’s farm, where we were treated like royalty and stayed in their brand new cottage that had just been finished. We ended the day with a great meal, beer, wine and more importantly, family.