MDF Magazine Newsletter Issue 59 August 2019

MD
AUGRABIES FALLS NATIONAL PARK
One should always be careful of perceptions. They have a
way of surprising you, fortunately sometimes in a positive
manner. We have always wanted to visit Augrabies Falls
National Park in the Northern Cape province but could never
justify travelling that distance (over 1 000 km) for what we
believed to be no more than a morning's viewing.
There is a famous statistic that the average amount of time
spent by tourists at the Grand Canyon in the United States of
America is 40 minutes. It's approximately the time it takes
you to walk from the car park to the edge of the viewing
area, be awestruck by the view, realise that there is not much
more to do once the photographs have been taken, and the
walk back to your car. We had the same perception with
Augrabies Falls National Park. During a recent trip to
Kgalagadi we decided to append Augrabies Falls National
Park onto our journey (a detour of approximately 100 km) to
see it for ourselves. No problem, just an overnight stop and
we could tick it off our list… .
It was February and really hot, hovering in the mid-40
degrees during by midday, which was about the time we
arrived at the falls after checking into our BnB. The plan was
to do the falls, spend our 40 minutes there, take photographs,
and then have the rest of the time free for further exploration.
Loretta took one look at the cross-country course which was
labelled as the wheelchair friendly path down to the falls and
declared that she might be able to get me down there but
certainly wouldn't be able to get me back up again! It was
scorching hot, and the accessible path was anything but.
We retired to our BnB and hatched another plan, extending
our stay and aiming to tackle the falls at 7 the next morning
when the gates opened and the temperatures would be more
manageable. Plan B worked like a charm and we were able
to spend all the time needed at the falls, listening to the sound
of the rushing water and the multitude of birds, reptiles and
other creatures who call the precarious cliff faces their home.
The wheelchair accessible boardwalk was manageable with
assistance (really strong assistance) but the first portion
between the reception area and the boardwalk is just a crazy
cross-country jumble of sand and stones. We discovered
afterwards that if one drives past the reception area to
accommodation Unit 51, just across the small car park
from the swimming pool, one can gain easy access to the
boardwalk and follow a far more manageable path. Sections
of the boardwalk are however very steep and need to be
handled carefully, even in dry conditions.
It was at this point in the day that we encountered our
perception changer. We embarked on a 90 km round trip
along the Wilderness Road, which carries one west for nearly
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