Hi everyone,
Wish I had typing and computers available at school - it would have been so much more interesting! I always hated writing by hand because my fingers could not keep pace with the ideas in my brain. The results were discontinuous and at times visibly dislexic. I'm sure my teachers always wondered why they had to resort to threats to get me to write an essay. If any of them read the blog, it was not your fault :-).
Anyway, typing via computer is an improvement on my original writing.
Back to this post which will endeavour to bring the world of the "Place of Big Noise" to you. When I had just acquired my current Renault Megane, I wanted to go somewhere out of the ordinary.
I remembered that, as a child, I was dragged to Dysonsklip near Upington for a Grade 3 final school term by my mom. We lived on the Dysonsklip island in the middle of the Orange River. Although there were a lot of vegetable and lucerne plantations near the riverbanks, further away there were just sand, rocks and the occasional sign that depicted a farm entrance. My brother-in-law John Keys taught at the Dysonsklip primary school at the time and had accommodation just opposite the school while he also owned a house in Upington. The time over there was a bit traumatic for me - I was dragged away from St Idas Primary School as a result of serious trouble between my adoptive parents, I had no friends in the new place, I had to adapt to a new curriculum in the final term of the school year AND the kids around Upington at the time were expert stone throwers. If you picked up an argument with a kid, make sure his mates are not around because they would move away to pick up stones at the start. If even one of your limbs stick out from under a melee of bodies, be sure that 90% of the stones aimed at it will be on target. Even if his friends are not there, you'll need to beat him to a pulp to ensure there are no comebacks after the fight - stone supplies are plentiful :-). I still think that if one can transfer that stone-throwing accuracy to shooting, the SANDF probably missed a big trick by not recruiting their snipers from that region.
Back to 2008. The gauntness of the region settled it for me and I decided to drag my family to visit the Augrabies Waterfall in the middle of the South African summer. "Augrabies", according to linguists, is derived from the Khoi or Nama or Korana (all first nations) word(s) for "Place of big noise". The people of that part of the Northern Cape are very proudly Afrikaans speaking but it is not an original language for the majority.
I booked a place for us in Kakamas (about 80 odd km from Upington). My wife did not protest much since she had family in Upington. The kids did not know much about geography and weather systems of that region, so they thought it will be a nice holiday! Well, I thought so too - for different reasons! I've just called for my sabre regarding the the pic quality in this post. I had to take pics of prints because I deleted the originals, sorry.
We travelled on the R44 until we hit the N7 and turned off near VanRhynsdorp onto the R27 and from there straight to Kakamas, via the N14 from around Keimoes. The R27 is a beautiful stretch of road, was reasonably well-maintained and for large stretches free from speed traps, so travelling was bliss. The small towns inbetween however was becoming rundown but there were very few beggars on the roadside.
One of the outstanding features of roadside Northern Cape is the work of the Sociable Weavers, one of the few species of birds in the world that build communal nests. The pic says it all ...? Obviously, Telkom has never been a fan of this type of abberation on the part the birds :-).
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| Sociable Weavers: community birds and destroyers of comms infrastructure |
To be honest, I expected more poverty in places like Kakamas but when we got there I was pleasantly surprised.. We booked into the Vergelegen Country Guest House & Restuarant, a really beautiful and comfortable establishment with great service levels and food (yes, the food was divine!). It was later afternoon when we got to Kakamas and, due to the high temperatures, the Good Wife and kids were not in the mood to explore Kakamas and decided to chill in our air-conditioned and DSTV-enabled room until after sundown.
Sundown did not bring respite from the oppressive heat but I was not going to spend my first day in Kakamas without going to town, so I sold the idea to the Good Wife as going to the local Mall. That peaked her interest and we were off. I was obviously just as disappointed when we could not find the Kakamas Mall. We found a nice little curio shop on the outskirts of town. It was one of the highlights of our our visit to the town. So, we returned to the guest house, had dinner and a beautiful night's rest with a phletora of frogs singing us to sleep.
The next day we got up early, had a fantastic breakfast and ventured into Kakamas again before the heat could become unbearable. Of all the buildings in Kakamas, I found the "Transformer Building" the most fascinating.The building was commissioned as a functioning electricty transformer building for the eletrification of Kakamas by a Swiss artisan, A B Hangartner and was commissioned by the Labour Colony Commission of the then Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (commonly referred to in English as the Dutch Reformed Church). This seemed to have been part of a support programme for the settlement of "poor whites" after Kakamas was declared a "poor white labour re-settlement colony" in 1897. The Transformer building was completed in 1914.
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| Transformer Building in Kakamas (modern streetlight a nice contrasting touch) |
I did not find anyone to give me greater insight into the significance of the Transformer Building (currently the Kakamas Museum) and the happenings around the time of establishment of Kakamas. The idea was clearly revolutionary and tough on everyone who were in Kakamas at the time and everyone else who were transported from elsewhere to build a community in what would have been a severely inhospitable place.
The water canals, transporting water from the Orange River to adjacent irrigation projects were also quite a site.
Given the difficult economic conditions we are currently experiencing, I think we can learn from early century growth strategies if we stop listening to the "modern" economists and research organisations for long enough to see what the principles underpinning the age-old strategies were and how those principles apply to a modern economy.
Ok, I'm off my soapbox!
The main reason for being in the region was to visit the Augrabies Waterfall in the National Park and when we went back to the guest house to escape the sun and re-aquaint ourselves with our sedentary lifestyle, I decided that the next day we were going to the Augrabies, which is about 16 km outside of Kakamas on the R64.
I had support from my family on this score (wow!), so we got up early the next day and made our way to the Augrabies (after booking on the internet). When we got there, the two ladies decided to do the short walk and us of the bolder species (my son liked that description :-)) decided to do the mini-triathlon: a canoe trip on the Orange River, a walk to a biking station and then a mountain bike return to the main Augrabies camp.
The temperature was starting to reach the late thirties (in degrees Celsius) and all of us were wondering whether it would not be more sensible simply to venture to the falls and then go back indoors for some nice food in an air-conditioned setting. But we paid our money and the egos (especially mine) took over.
Me and the youngest male in the household made our way to the mini triathlon starting point and with some King Kong chest beats, got ourselves kitted out with safety jackets and we were off on the Orange River (It was originally called the Gariep River in the Nama language). Early European settlers, without having had sight of the river itself, called it Vigiti Magna off ancient maps.
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| Starting out on the Gariep |
Anyway, the mistake the youngster and I made was to put too much elbow grease into the canoeing leg ensuring that it was over far too soon. It is the most pleasurable part of the triathlon and should be savoured for as long as possible.
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| Hard slog out of the sun-drenched gulley: More like escape from the planet of drought |
Once we reached the changing point, we were given rough directions to walk to a cycling base station and trudging through gullies in desert-like heat, without sufficient water, was not my idea of fun but when we reached the base station about 20 min later and well-fried, we found two mountain bikes waiting for us. The lesson learnt from the walk is to take sufficient light protective clothing and enough water or other hydrating liquids (exclude alcohol from you provisions at this stage).
So our troubles were over once we got the cycles right? ... Not quite!
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| We thought we've made it at this point :-) |
The cycling base station is in a little valley and you need to be an ok mountain cyclist to get out of there. Either that, or as we often did, walk the stony road to the top of the hill.
When we got to the top of the hill we could see the oasis of the main Augrabies camp and felt that it was all worth it. However, in 40 plus degrees Celsius heat, even a 5 km cycling trip becomes taxing and, although I faked it as best I could, I'm sure the youngster could detect that I was fading fast. Luckily we came upon a little stream where we could refresh and make our way back to the main camp.
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| A lifesaving little stream |
We got to the main camp a good two hours or more after leaving and just in time to stop the ladies from sending out a search party for us. When then walked together to the well-appointed look-out points like the rest of the normal touristas and gaped at the waterfall (funny that no matter how many waterfalls you've seen, you still find each different one special. The Augrabies Falls, situated in the middle of semi-desert, is special for that very reason. Unfortunately I did not take a good pic of the actual waterfall but it is not too far if you want to see it for yourself! Good comeback, hey?
After a good lunch at the on-site diner, we explored the shop and the houses (yes, one can rent a self-catering unit at the Falls but you need to do it well in advance because they get booked out quickly. Bookings can ba done via SANPARKS website).
We did not tarry too long at the Falls and made our way back to our own little rented oasis for the rest of the afternoon - my legs were gone anyway!
Oh yes and true to my word we made our way to Upington the next day, visited the Good Wife's family, showed the kids around the town and where I spent some of my childhood. And that was the trip ...
Until next time, which I hope will be a less taxing piece :-)
Travel well and safely but travel!
