Blogs from Augrabies Falls National Park, Northern Cape, South Africa, Africa

Day 15 At the bottom of the Kalahari Dessert here where the mighty Orange River flows through and creates the Augrabies waterfall. Whilst it ain’t Niagara or Iguaçu, it has a certain majesty being in the middle of an arid and dramatic setting. And its almost deserted.. I also finally saw a springbok and the little dassie - apparently a cousin of an elephant!!!!! Then it was to what was advertised as white water rafting …..but as its the dry season, the Thames flows faster - but having said that it was very pleasant spending the warm afternoon paddling down the river. ... read more

Distilling some kind of message for future historians while offering entertainment at the same time is not as easy as I'd once thought, or maybe it will be after I get back from the Kalahari as I have been persuaded by my AD, Mike, and my best friend, Mike, (USA botanist), to take a 'quick' trip up to Augrabies Falls, tomorrow morning, to the Southern edge of the Kalahari desert, for 6 days. The Kalahari is reputedly the 'cradle of mankind', or it was last time I looked, but things change and anyways, the kalahari, 'is' one of Earth's most desolate and primordial places, whatever your scientific belief, so I'm taking extra fuel and water just in case. We'll shoot some scenes in the desert, and also of the falls. There may be beautiful flower displays ... read more