Life sometimes gives you a wake-up call when you get too blasé about things, taking all its miracles and wonders for granted. So, I was suitably surprised, impressed - and humbled - when I visited Augrabies recently. The Herculean amount of water which had plummeted into the gorge a few months earlier had ebbed and having visited this Northern Cape national park several times over the years, I wasn’t expecting extremes. I planned for a quick afternoon visit, but was stopped ‘stokstil’ in my tracks! The power, strength and energy of the water thundering over the falls and spraying up in a fine cloud of mist took my breath away. This great force of nature got my full attention. When my heart started beating again, I took a few deep breaths and slowed down to the pace of miracles.
And in case I hadn’t been adequately reminded to shift into a lower gear, the small signs attached to the walkway posts reminded me: ’For one minute . . . Stop, be quiet, listen, breathe . . .’ ‘Stop, Feel the wind on your skin.’ ‘Before you take photos . . . First look . . . and listen.’ ‘Listen to the sounds around you.’
Often these days we are too quick to take the photo before we’ve appreciated the place, to record the event rather than basking in the beauty of the moment. So, I basked and basked, relishing the exhilarating experience as I slowly walked from the top of the falls with its lightning-bolt intensity to the lower viewpoints with their gentler views tinged with rainbows and enchantment. Smiling widely and anointed by waterfall droplets, I tuned in to the Augrabies world, watching a pale-winged starling sitting on a rock, a colourful Augrabies flat lizard sunning itself, a dassie watching me as it chewed on a twig, and all around me the sound of water thundering into the depths.
In May the flood water reached a high of 5200 cumecs (cubic metres per second) and to make that powerful energy more understandable, it is handy to know that one cumec is 1000 litres of water per second. This exceeded the high from January 2011, which was 4779 cumecs, but was still less than the record flood of 1988 when the water thundered down in a writhing torrent at 6800 cumecs, living up to its Khoi name ‘Aukoerebis’, ‘Place of Great Noise’. I remember an Augrabies field guide once describing a flood as not just breathtaking but terrifying, and how he was able to hear the change in the volume of water, undiscernible to visitors, as it steadily increased with the arrival of the floodwater.
The signs of the last big flood were all around me. Broken walkways, areas cordoned off, plants wrapped around poles. Evidence of the incredible strength of water.
I was being gently reminded that even without the floods, the Orange River’s plummeting journey 56 metres into the rugged gorge below is hugely impressive. But Augrabies is also awe-inspiring because of its unique character, the combination of elements – water and rock. The area’s geological age is 1 300 million years and the ancient energy pulses across the arid Kalahari where the Orange, South Africa’s longest river, fed by several dams, tumbles downward in a spectacular and exuberant display before wending its way westwards in search of the ocean.
It begins its journey as the Senqu River in Lesotho’s Drakensberg Mountains, becoming known as the Orange River when it enters South Africa and continues with it 2200km journey.
As the story goes, the name ‘Aukoerebis’ originated when the Khoi first heard the sound of the waterfall and thought it was a great beast. They initially ran away. When they found enough courage to return and investigate, thinking that perhaps the beast was in pain and needed some help, they found the falls.
Places of power and water sources inspire folklore and so does the Orange or Gariep River, as it is also known. It is said that a Great Snake with a diamond on its forehead, or with glowing diamond eyes, is the river’s guardian. This ‘Grootslang’ is said to live in a ‘wondergat’ (wonder cave) filled with sparkling diamonds.
As I followed the walkways to the various viewpoints, I came across other visitors who were also wandering and wondering around, awestruck. A first-time visitor enthused, eyes shining with excitement, that he had only seen the falls on television and had never thought that it would be as fantastic in real life. A mother, visiting with her daughter, had viewed several great waterfalls on her travels: Vic Falls in Zimbabwe, Murchison Falls in Uganda and Iguazú Falls in Argentina. She didn’t, however, anticipate that Augrabies would be so extraordinary. “Each waterfall is unique because of its strength, width, length and size,” she explained. At Augrabies, the granite rock adds its special character and beauty, providing the perfect setting and passageway for a river of life.
We continued to explore as if in a daydream, each paying their respects to Mother Nature - and the Great River Snake - in their own way, amid birdsong, the sound of singing water, hovering magic and immense power.
.png)
SUBMIT YOUR COMMENT