The Green Kalahari, Northern Cape
The Green Kalahari is so named for the belt of irrigated green that surrounds the Orange River as it flows west-north-west through this lower section of the Kalahari thirstland toward the Namibian border and the Richtersveld area of Namaqualand.
Once the home of San Bushmen, Nama and Koranna, the southern section of the Green Kalahari is now one of South Africa’s ‘fruit-baskets’ – producing table grapes, raisins, sultanas and excellent dessert wines. Other crops grown in the fertile irrigated lands on the banks of the Orange River and on the many islands in the river are lucerne and cotton.
There are no longer any San living their traditional hunter-gatherer lives in the area – what communities remain have moved north into the protected Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, but a visit to small farming towns such as Keimoes will bring you into contact with the descendants of the San, the Nama and the Korranna, their heritage built into their faces and shining in their eyes, and many farm-stalls and curio shops sell traditional curio items. The Riemvasmaak Community Conservancy just south of the Augrabies National Park is owned by the Nama people and offers its 4X4 trails, hiking, camping and hot springs.
The Orange River that gives life and commerce to the area also provides excellent fly-fishing, canoeing, white-water river rafting and ‘sundowner’ birding. Wineries and private cellars in the Upington, Keimoes and Kakamas region sell locally made wines, and farmstalls sell fresh produce and gemstones from the Riemvasmaak Conservancy – famous for its flourite.
The main town is Upington on the banks of the Orange River, near the small towns of Keimoes and Kakamas, and is en-route to the Green Kalahari’s main nature attractions – the Augrabies National Park, and the South African section of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.
4×4 trails and adventures abound in the Green Kalahari, and it is inadvisable to travel to the Kgalagadi without one…if you are planning to go north of Augrabies, it would advisable to hire a 4×4 if you don’t own one.
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