Orange River, border of Namibia and South Africa, 7 September 2012

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Orange River, border of Namibia and South Africa, 7 September 2012

Orange River Bushwacked Camp at Vloolsdrif South Africa

We left our camp at 9.00am to drive to the mighty Orange River and to cross the Namibian-South African border. The border crossing was very quick, with computerisation helping the system. Again the countryside we drove through was beautiful, rugged mountains, and boldered plaines.

We arrived at the Bushwacked Camp Site at about 1.30pm after stopping off in the last town in Namibia (Noordoewer) to get rid of our Namibian dollars as South Africa retail outlets does not accept Namibian dollars. We could use both SA Rand and Namibian dollars in Namibia (exchange rate is same for each country - $1.00US to 8.1 Rand/Nam Dollar)

Our camp site was on the banks of the Orange River. It was beautiful and the grounds were so well set up, and with lawn. Throughout Namibia we contend with sand and dust, which one would expect in the Namib Desert, so the lawn was a wonderful change. Our tents went up on lawn – we were putting up the tents for the last time.

The Orange River or Gariep was the Nama / Korana name for that part of the Orange River downstream from the confluence of the Vaal River, the upper part being known as Nu-Gariep or Black River, while the Vaal itself was called Tky-Gariep or Ky-Gariep.

Gariep is San for "Great water", and is the original name of the Orange River. The name Gariep, therefore, was used to depict a large watercourse, a great river to differentiate it from a small stream.

As the Orange River - also known as Grootrivier - is South Africa’s largest, it never failed to awe those who saw it for the first time. In his Dag Register, General Janssens wrote “...not being used to large rivers in Africa, it gave us great pleasure to see a stream which has all the requirements of good, strongly flowing water, the banks being mostly steep...”

Gariep Dam is a dam in South Africa, near the town of Norvalspont, Free State province, South Africa.

The Gariep Dam was originally named the Hendrik Verwoerd Dam after the first Prime Minister of the Republic of South Africa Hendrik Verwoerd on its commission in 1971. However after the end of apatheir the name was considered unsuitable, and the name was officially changed to Gariep Dam on 4 October 1996.

The dam is located on the Orange River between the Eastern Cape to the south and the Free State to the north and about 30 km north east of Colesberg. It is situated in a gorge at the entrance to the Ruigte Valley some 5 km east of Norvalspont.

The wall is 88 m high and has a crest length of 914 m and contains approximately 1.73 million m³ of concrete. The Gariep Dam is the largest storage reservoir in South Africa. In South African English, dam refers both to the structure and the lake it impounds. Gariep Dam has a total storage capacity of approximately 5,340,000 megalitres and a surface area of more than 370 square kilometres when full. The hydro-electrical power station houses four 90 MW generators, giving a maximum output of 360 MW of electricity at a water flow rate of 800 m³/s.

Once we set up camp and had lunch, 6 of us decided to go canoeing on the Orange River. What a lot of fun. We were driven up stream for 7 kms where we launched the inflatable canoes (R240 or $30). I paired up with Andrew Durban from SW UK, Miriam and Julia from Germany where in the other, and Jenny, also from Germany paired with Peter from Copenhagen. We had races, water fights; I took Peter’s oars then left them in the river to pick up. At least we got in the lead for awhile!. We went down very small rapids at one stage. After 2 ½ hours we arrived at our camp site. The water was cold but the weather was warm so it was an excellent combination.

When we got back to camp, everyone else was sitting in a circle chatting. I had a beautiful, warm shower and then walked around the camp grounds to take pictures and to wait for the sunset – oh, not another b... sunset!!! Beautiful!

That night the camp restaurant cooked us chicken poiki which was yummy – a South African dish. We then had toaster marshmallows as they had lit a fire next to the bar.

As we were getting up at 4.00am as were going to have the long, 10-hour drive to Cape Town the next day, Tom and I went to bed at about 9.30pm. There were several people who didn’t go to bed at all that night!!

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