Our first long stay – boy did we have a lot to learn *insert face-palm emoji*. Camping, especially long-stay camping, is so much more than just picking a site and setting up, or so we’ve learned. There are so many things to take into account, wind, signal, distance to the ablutions, water and power points, how level and sandy is the ground, if it rains bad, will we be underwater, shading, good views (of course you want a pretty view if you’re setting up somewhere for a month) – this is just to name a few. So at our first long stay we were extremely picky about where to set up. Other than the circumstances – no or very dirty water and power surges as well as sitting without power for some days up to 15 hours at a time – at our accomadation (we’re not here to bad mouth campgrounds) we were quite happy with our first long stay.
We had the best neighbours, and all the other long stayers were exceptionally friendly and was more than happy to teach us “kinders” a few tips and tricks when it comes to traveling full time. Let me just say we were more than willing to learn. Something as simple as how to do washing quick and easy when a campground doesn’t offer laundry facilities or how useful a hosepipe can be – this might seem like common sense, it wasn’t for us.
But let’s get back to it, we stayed in a small town close to Upington, called Kakamas, we were pleasantly surprised with the number of things to do in the area. We went gin and brandy tasting, went to Riemvasmaak hot springs – this is a must if you’re ever in the area, we went to Augrabies Falls National Park. Just a little piece of advice, if you are planning on traveling or going to our National parks more than once, the Wild Card that SANParks offers is definitely an investment. We made up for the cost within our first month of traveling, it honestly is worth it.
With Kakamas reaching temperatures of above 40 degrees some days – and us sitting without power and no swimming pool – we made the most of Augrabies and their awesome day visitors picnic spot with a beautifully maintained swimming pool.
We did 2 of the 3 hikes at Augrabies, thinking back it might not have been the smartest idea, especially considering we only took 1.5L of water – between the both of us – on a 12.21km hike in the scorching heat and applied zero sunscreen (yes, I was peeling for weeks after – lesson learnt). I must admit, the hike was something else. Augrabies is so arid and every now and then you stumble across a beautiful clear stream flowing, just enough to cool you down and motivate you to keep going, turning around was not an option, we’ve come too far.
All in all I think it must’ve been the most beautiful hike we’ve done to date. The scenery was beautiful, dry, but breathtaking. We hiked to Twin falls, this alone was just worth it all. We then did the Dassie Trail, here you need to climb over boulders and walk over the tiniest wooden bridges, bundu bashing through reeds. Every time you think you’re lost you see a small sign pointing you in the right direction. After a tough 4 and a half hours of walking, we made it back to the picnic site and just jumped straight in to the swimming pool.
The actual game viewing part of the park is just as beautiful, bragging with viewpoints like Moon Rock and Echo Corner. They also have quite a few animals namely Gemsbok or Oryx, ostriches, giraffes, klipspringer, dassies and a variety of snakes, just to name a few.
If adventuring is not your thing, there is a beautiful rock shop just outside of town, Crystal Spring Minerals, I was obsessed. We visited them a few times and I could walk around in there for hours, don’t worry guys, if this is not your scene, there is a really nice area outside to sit and wait and a butchery and coffee shop just down the road.
We recommend visiting Die Pienk Padstal, as well we just loved the vibe and if you like Quartz, especially Rose quartz, this is the place for you.
We cannot forget about Tierberg viewpoint. We decided one afternoon to take a drive up to Tierberg in Keimos with our newly found friends, oom Francios and tannie Laraine, to go watch the sunset we heard so much about, oh my goodness, it did not disappoint. Disclaimer, if you’re able to look past the mess, broken glass and rubbish left behind, we suggest you give it a go – thank us later.
