Water that Thunders

 If we had been at Augrabies Falls at the beginning, not the end, of  2011 we would have encountered the falls in full flood.  The photos below were taken in January 2011 and displayed at the information centre.   Many of the observation platforms were washed away by the force of the water.  

Just being at Augrabies  under normal circumstances was awesome enough -- made me aware of my fragile humanity in the face and  power of nature.  But imagine being there during a flood like the one  photographed below!!  

Augrabies  is a Khoi word that means "water that thunders"

Off the Beaten Track

Where to begin?    I’m in South Africa --- on the open road. Traveling through remote and lonely landscapes.  Vast distances. Magnificent skies. Ancient broken geography that has humbled me, stilled my soul.   

I’ve been traveling with my sister, Deborah, in her green Suzuki  4 wheel  drive which she bought (second- hand) the day before we set off.  She wanted an adventure.    Me too.  (I think we have it in our genes).  

So we took a long and less traveled route from Johannesburg to Cape Town and at times felt we were the only people on this earth.  We drove and drove on an empty road with dry country stretching out on either side. We saw no one else when we hiked along the precipice of a gigantic gorge,  and were  alone when we wandered for hours through strange and otherworldly rock formations and ancient caves.   

We spent two nights at Augrabies Falls (towards the border with Namibia). 
This is where the Orange River thunders into a sheer ravine. 
Supposedly the sixth largest falls in the world. 

The scale of it !!

Deborah on Arrow Point

Hanging on to my hat

And to myself

 There is a strange and oddly indifferent energy about the place. 

Wherever you look, shapes of elemental figures and faces reveal 

themselves in the rocks and in the plunging cliffs.  

It feels as though something ancient and powerful 

is being held in the stone.    

Waiting....