As mentioned previously, Thorsten and I (a.k.a. “the Blogitects”: one blogger + one architect) recently got back from a roadtrip to the Northern Cape to celebrate my 50th birthday. I had never properly explored the Northern Cape, South Africa’s largest and least populated province, and passing the half-century mark seemed like a good reason to finally do it. After overnighting in a retro Campovan in Kameel, our first stop in the Northern Cape was Augrabies Falls National Park.

Augrabies Falls, one of South Africa’s 19 national parks, had been high on my list of places to visit for years. But it’s not the easiest destination to get to so I kept putting it off. Augrabies is close to the Namibian border and about a ten-hour drive from Joburg — an awkward distance that is neither a full two-day drive nor a feasible one-day drive. It’s also hard to decide when to visit Augrabies. The park is most popular in late summer, when the falls flood their banks and become a true Wonder-of-the-World type of sight. But I wanted to stay in the Gorge Cottage (more on that in a moment), which is apparently unbearably hot in the summer.

I finally booked us into Augrabies for my birthday — at the height of South African winter — and despite the falls being really low, I think it was a great time to be there. We had the park mostly to ourselves, the temperatures were mostly comfortable (if slightly on the cold side at times), and the Gorge Cottage was every bit as spectacular as I’d hoped. I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful place to turn 50.

Our Trip to Augrabies Falls

Kameel is just over six hours’ drive from Augrabies; we left around 8:00 a.m. so we could take our time and make it to the park with plenty of daylight left. The roads between Kameel and Augrabies — we took the N14 pretty much the entire way — were really good.

We arrived at the park around 3:30 p.m., picked up the keys to the Gorge Cottage, which is about 10 kilometers from the main gate, and went to have a quick look at the falls before driving to our accommodation. (With the exception of the Gorge Cottage, all the other Augrabies accommodation is at the main camp by the falls.)

Note: If you live in South Africa but are not South African (like me), don’t forget to bring your passport with residency visa. A long-term residency visa qualifies you for the South African citizen park fee rate, which is way cheaper than the international visitor park fee rate.

We set out for the Gorge Cottage, passing a family of giraffes along the way, and arrived shortly before sunset. (The road to the cottage is accessible in a regular car although you have to drive through a shallow stream in one spot.)

The Gorge Cottage

The Gorge Cottage is a one-bedroom studio at the Augrabies Oranjekom viewpoint. The cottage is totally unique for a couple of reasons: 1) It’s ten kilometers away from the Augrabies main gate, so once the park gates closed at nightfall we were the only people inside this vast, incredibly remote national park. 2) The view of the Orange River Gorge, directly below the cottage, is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Fellow blogger Roxanne Reid calls it “the best view in South Africa”, and I can’t argue with her.

I loved clambering over the rocks around the cottage at sunrise, taking photos from every angle. There are no Big Five animals in Augrabies so walking is safe.

A few important notes about the Gorge Cottage:

1. Although there is electricity at the cottage, for some bizarre reason there are no plug points. So charge all of your devices in advance and bring a power bank. I wish someone had told me this ahead of time…There is strong cell signal at the cottage (which is great in case of emergency) but cell signal doesn’t help if your phone is dead.
2. The cottage bathroom is about 25 meters away in a separate building. (I unfortunately forgot to take photos of the bathroom but it’s quite nice.) Bring a flashlight or headlamp to light your way at night — it is VERY dark and I struggled to find the bathroom with my cell phone flashlight (which also had low battery due to point #1).
3. The park gates close at 7:00p.m. and there’s no access to the Gorge Cottage after that time. So make sure you have everything you need before nightfall — there is a nice gift shop at the park entrance where you can pick up any basics you may have forgotten to bring with you.
4. The Gorge Cottage can book out far in advance so reserve it early on the SANParks website. It costs about R2100 ($115) per night for two people.

What We Did in the Park

We only had one full day in the park and didn’t do a whole lot other than hang around the cottage, which was great. We intended to do a short hike — the six-kilometer Dassie Trail — but the weather suddenly turned in the morning and it got cold, blustery, and rainy. So instead of doing a full hike, we took a drive around the park and did some short walks around various viewpoints.

For a full run-down of everything to do in Augrabies Falls, read this detailed post by Roxanne Reid. We really loved Augrabies and my only regret was not staying for three nights instead of two.

Next up: Sleeping in a stone igloo and the widest reaches of the Karoo.