Orange river canoeing and Namaqualand flowers

Cruising on the Orange river

Canoes ready and packed

There’s nothing better than a family road trip.  This with the prospect of a four day canoeing trip down the Orange river made for a mouth watering September school holidays.  Our plan was to drive  a massive rectangle ‘around’ Lesotho and then extending across South Africa to the Orange river and Namibia, back down the west coast in Namaqualand national park and then directly across the Karoo and back via the eastern Cape to Pietermaritzburg. Logistically this trip was a breeze because we had signed up with an outfit called Felix Unité who provide all the canoes, food and even ice to keep the beers cold!  

We set off at dawn driving north and wound our way up the impressive Van Reenin’s Pass leaving the rolling hills of KZN far below and entering into the flatness of the highveld. A sharp turn to the west took us through Bethlehem and on to the capital of the Free State, Bloemfontein where we had decided to visit the Boer War museum.  Being Heritage day we were welcomed there by a genuine Afrikaner market with singing, trinkets for sale and scrumptious “maalvleis en vetkoek” washed down with home made ginger beer. The museum was fascinating and informative and particularly useful for the girls who had studied some of this at school.  The scale of the slaughter and particularly the horror of the concentration camps was sobering.  We continued west to Kimberly                                                                                                 across smooth, Springbok studded plains and arrived  around dusk  and                                                                                                        briefly visited the historical village at the Big Hole. 

Richtersveld magic

Another early start had us heading directly west through an unpopulated landscape sprinkled with the odd antelope or ostrich.  This gave us many hours in the car for idle banter and the odd podcast which added an interesting and entertaining new dimension to our road trips.  We crossed the Vaal river and then saw the intense green of the vineyards which fringe the Orange river.  We skirted Upington and then continued along the Orange to the frontier town of Springbok.  Here we had booked into the amazing Gogas nature reserve and set up camp in a thatched cottage and were soon exploring amazing granite rocks and curious vegetation.  The wildlife was incredible  and the magnificent Gemsbok abounded.  A night excursion for a pee and to ogle at the sugar-sprinkled sky brought me face to face with an Aardwolf which was an animal I’d never seen before.

Canoe see-saw antics on the Orange

A morning drive took us through yellow and purple carpets of flowers, through cragged rocky outcrops and past more of the majestic Gemsbok. The visitor centre had an exceptional indigenous plant garden with extraordinary strange succulents with names like butter tree, button plant and the weird quiver tree. 

Warm rocks, cool water.....

From there our route took us north and after restocking in Springbok we crossed the border over the Orange river at Noordoewer and into the arid lands of southern Namibia.  A short drive took us to the start of our canoe trip at Felix Unité. Provenance is the name of their base camp and is certainly an oasis of green lawns, reed-thatched cabanas and a very blue swimming pool. We set up tents on the luscious lawns and sipped on icy cold beers as steak sizzled on the ‘braai’. Our co-canoeists slowly rolled in and like us were mainly families excited by the prospect of four days cruising down this incredible waterway.  A humorous briefing explained how to pack our buckets and canoes, where to stash the beers and how to use “Lulu” the portable toilet kept us all chuckling and rearing to go.

The Orange river is South Africa’s longest river at 2250km and originates in the Drakensberg mountains and in Lesotho is called the Senqu. The name Orange is not thanks to its sometimes orange colour when in flood but rather named by a Dutchman in honour of Prince William of the Royal Dutch House of Orange!  It is joined by the Caledon and Vaal rivers and is dammed in two places forming the Gariep and Vanderkloof dams. 

Margot and Zara cosy camping

The river was flowing well and the water clean but the weather for the start of our paddle was a wee bit inclement with cloud cover and a gathering wind. Nonetheless we set of with great enthusiasm, boats liberally loaded and Zara skippering our canoe and Ilda and Margot in the other. The paddling is easy and relaxing and we drift down gentle rolling rapids beneath fascinating rock formations with names like Echo Krantzes and Snail Mountain.  We stop for an early lunch and the crew prepare a scrumptious selection while we go for a short walk to see San rock petroglyphs. By now the wind has picked up and our expedition leader announces that this “Peace of Paradise Camp” will now become the overnight stop and we set about erecting tents and then wile away the afternoon reading, playing ‘Boulle’ and, some, catching fish.  The evening is a tranquil affair with great conversations, good tucker and an unforgettable display of stars. We sleep very well and are soon fed, packed up and on or way again. 

Again, the pace is mellow, the sun warm and some of our fellow paddlers are cracking their first beers soon after breakfast! We encounter a couple of fun rapids with names like “Dead Man” rapid and “Entrance exam” which everyone gets down ok albeit some folk backwards.  Zara seems to go on strike fairly early in the piece and seems quite happy to let Dad do the paddling while she ‘chills’ and occasionally jumps overboard for a paddle. The day drifts by and lunch is served next to a long rolling rapid where we have great fun and good luck catching feisty Yellow fish.  Some walk to an abandoned mine while others sip beer or sleep.  That evening we camp above the Sjambok kloof with stories of the big rapid coming up tomorrow!  We visit the old fluorite mine and gather many samples and have great fun that night sprinkling these on the fire and experiencing our very own fire works display.  

Happy families after four days on the Orange

Sjambok rapid is the trip’s canoeing highlight and is a long bouncy rapid with a lovely drop and waves at the end running through a narrow granite gully. Again everyone comes through unscathed and we have fun swimming in the strong current, jumping off the rocks and then sunning ourselves like lizards on the steaming granite. Supplies have been restocked at the last camp and with more ice to keep beers cool and even better grub we cruise into the “Scratches” campsite where apparently dinosaurs sharpened their claws causing great rifts in the quartzite towers. Again, this is perfection with sandy areas to pitch the tents, swimming on tap and cold beer on ice!  We are about 23 guests on the trip with four guides and are well looked after. We explore inland a bit and are enthralled by the rugged beauty of the 2000 million year old Richtersveld mountains. The dozen or so children are a law unto themselves and their laughter and antics vibrate around the campsite.  The final camp dinner is an extravagant affair and we feast on roast mutton and the mood is buoyant around the crackling camp fire. Again the stars are extravagant beyond belief and we slowly drift off to our tents and fall into a deep decadent sleep.

The morning routine is becoming well rehearsed and we reflect that this will be the last morning of this magical family adventure. Lulu is in demand after the excesses of last night and we swim, feast on a fine cooked breakfast and pack our buckets for the last time.  We slip off into the current and briefly Zara makes an effort at paddling before retreating under her sun umbrella to ‘chill’ once more.  The bird life has been spectacular and we have seen many animals including vervet monkeys, baboons and the scary looking but benign Leguaan or Nile monitor. A few more slightly rocky rapids, more swims, canoe “see-saw” and children swapping boats sees the time disappear and before we know it we are beaching at Assenkeur farm and the end of our adventure. Boats, bags, buckets and people are loaded efficiently onto the ‘bus’ which must be from 1800 and something but has been beautifully restored and chugs us back to base and another cold beer,  a final feed and fond farewells.

Namaqualand flowers

We begin the big trek home but, as always, are reluctant to take the same route back and so head south down the west coast with a plan to complete a big loop around and below Lesotho and across the Karoo.  First stop is Namaqua national park, famous for its carpets of colourful flowers.  It is late in the season but we are not disappointed.  Rich tapestries of golden yellow daisies and a multitude of other vivid flowers dazzle us and occasionally we see the majestic Gemsbok grazing in this colourful paradise.  We drive on to the west coast and the blue Atlantic ocean where we stop to picnic and dip our toes into the icy water where mermaid like Kelp oscillates amongst mussel clad rocks. 

Margot races towards the chilly Atlantic

At Calvinia we turn east and begin the long traverse of this incredible country back to KZN.  The scenery is dramatic; vast arid plains punctuated with the occasional strutting ostrich and austere rock formations.  it is dry and sparse and we stop at a creaking windmill pulling crystal clear water up into a concrete reservoir.  The girls don’t hesitate and are soon stripped and splashing in the icy water.  Refreshed we drive on and our next stop is the Rooi Granaat in Loxton, an authentic local café where we sipped on proper smooth cappuccinos and breakfasted on fluffy omelettes filled with home made goats’ milk cheese. The local NGK church fills the central village square and the bells chime calling the faithful to prayer.  

Swimming in an icy windmill reservoir in the Karoo

We overnight in a remote Karoo town and are up early and watch the golden tendrils of the rising sun as we speed along passing towns like Middelberg, Molteno and Elliot.  The remote pristine northern Cape morphs into the more populous and littered eastern Cape and we are reminded of the so called “homelands” of the bad old days when this was the Transkei and it doesn’t seem to have recovered. Our last night is at a fantastic farmstay near Maclear.  We are spoiled with a home cooked meal and a crackling fire as rain continues to pour down.

Our last morning takes us back into KZN at Underberg and we stop as always at The Lemon Tree café for a scrumptious breakfast.  Then its on down into the Umkomaas valley and we wind our way home to Hilton and delighted dog,cat and chicken.

3800km later, Orange river canoeing, Namibia, flowers in Namaqualand, Gemsbok, Boer war museum in Bloem, breakfast the Rooi Granaat, swimming at a Karoo windmill, fascinating podcasts, laughs, photos and fun.  Exploring Africa forever fun!