Fri, Aug 14 - Driving to Augrabies National Park

We managed to keep warm through the night and in the morning I went outside to check on the car and found the large, fierce-looking guard dog wandering around.  I talked to her and she gradually thawed and led me to her puppies!!  Three very fat, roly-poly puppies came stumbling outside, and Mom was very friendly after that.  Bob was entranced too, and we would have taken one home if we had been  able!    The three tough-looking bikers from Johannesburg turned out to be very amiable also and we chatted about our travels as we played with the puppies.

We had an excellent breakfast of veggie omelet and a small steak and mushrooms, paid our bill and set off, heading north.  We drove about 50 miles and reached the wide, lovely Orange River and started seeing a lot of vineyards some for wine and some for raisins, and entered the large town of Upington,(pop 78,000).  This is the largest town in the Northern Cape and a very prosperous and tidy town.  We needed to restock our lunch snacks and found a Checkers which seemed to carry everything from pots and pans to meat and candy.

The Edge of the Kalahari

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We got enough to keep us going and drove further north trying to get to the edge of the Kalahari Desert.  We drove through beautiful tawny grasslands spying some small herds of Springbok, until we started seeing small red sand dunes.

Springbok

Red-eyed Bulbul

  It was getting late so we turned around, drove back through Upington and went on about 30 miles more until we entered Augrabies Falls National Park which seems to be as well organized as a park in the US with a store, restaurant, camp sites and lovely brick duplex cabins.  Bob had carefully selected ours back in SB and it is on the edge of the development and overlooks the wilderness.  As we were unpacking, I heard a scream next door, went outside met our neighbor who had left her door open and her son inside. A Baboon had just run inside, jumped onto the bed and grabbed a loaf of bread and was happily eating it some ways away!  The little boy was quite terrified.  I know you have to be very careful around monkeys in campgrounds, but I didn't think one would  come into a cabin with people right there!!  I have a bad track record with monkeys, so I'll have to be extra careful!

Masses of Purple Flowers

I walked around the campground while Bob showered and found two washers and a dryer which I really must take advantage of tomorrow as it's been over a week - if the store has detergent and if I find time!

We drove back to the park center and found wifi and dinner.  We split a springbok carpaccio and then I had Kudu goulash and R had Springbok stroganoff, plus a bottle of very good local shiraz.  After dinner we walked down a winding path to the falls as it is illuminated at night from 8-10.  The sky was brilliant with Scorpio and the Milky Way glowing overhead.  We walked to the falls overlook and were amazed at the power of the water - quite stunning.   We only have two nights here so we'll have to plan tomorrow carefully.