Augrabies Falls
Interesting facts
- In the early 1920s the soldier and statesman Deneys Reitz swam across the plunge pool into the cavern behind the falls, claiming to be the first to survive it.
- Hendrik Jakob Wikar, usually called Swedish, was born in Kokkola in present-day Finland and had fled Cape Town over gambling debts before reaching the falls.
- The last leader of the area's original inhabitants, Klaas Pofadder, lived on an island upstream of the falls that still bears the name Klaas Island.
- Early 20th-century prospectors believed the pool beneath the falls was full of diamonds washed down the Orange River, a river with many alluvial diamond deposits.
- According to legend, the Grootslang guarding that pool lies coiled around a hoard of gold and gems that it will protect for eternity.
- Cattle and even hippopotamuses have been swept over the falls, and a man carried over them in October 1981 survived.
- The quiver trees of the park take their name from the San, who hollowed out the soft branches to make quivers for their arrows.
- When the quiver trees flower in winter, their copious nectar draws flocks of birds, and baboons tear the blossoms apart for the sweet liquid.
- The Nile monitor, Africa's largest lizard, lives along the river in the park.
- Local Khoi and San communities revere the shepherd's tree, which grows in the park, and destroying one is strictly forbidden.
Why it is worth it
At Augrabies the Orange River, the largest river in South Africa, gathers itself and drops about 56 metres in a thundering cascade into a narrow granite chasm. The Khoikhoi called the place Ankoerebis, "place of great noise", and the name was later reshaped by Trek Boers into Augrabies. The falls lie in the arid Northern Cape, where the green ribbon of the river cuts through a landscape of bare rock and scrub.
Below the falls the river has carved a gorge some 18 km long and around 240 metres deep, its walls polished smooth and pale by water. Figures of 146 metres sometimes quoted for the falls in fact describe the height of these canyon walls. In flood the volume is immense: peak flows of about 7,800 cubic metres per second were recorded in 1988 and 6,800 in 2006, more than Niagara's highest recorded flow. Local folklore places the Grootslang, a monstrous serpent, in the depths of the pool at the foot of the falls, and early accounts include those of the Swedish traveller Hendrik Jakob Wikar in 1778.
Since 1966 the falls have been protected within Augrabies Falls National Park, which covers around 820 square kilometres. Among its landmarks is Moon Rock, an exfoliation dome about 700 metres long and 30 metres high. Quiver trees, the giant tree aloes of the Northern Cape, stand on the rocky slopes, and the park is home to klipspringer, springbok, gemsbok, black rhinoceros, caracal, bat-eared fox and Cape clawless otters.
Getting there
The nearest city is Upington, about 91 km away in a straight line and roughly 120 km by road to the west. Upington Airport (UTN) is the nearest airport, about 93 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Augrabies Falls is a waterfall on the Orange River, the largest river in South Africa. Since 1966 the waterfall, set in a desolate and rugged milieu, is enclosed by the Augrabies Falls National Park. The falls are around 56 metres (184 ft) in height. Some sources cite an approximate height of 146 metres (479 ft); this is actually the height from the base of the canyon to the top of the walls, not that of the falls themselves.
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