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Thread: Richtersveld
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25-02-2013, 13:07 #1
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Richtersveld
In August/September last year, Jonathan Harvey and myself took off some time off and went to explore the Richtersveld.
The Richtersveld is an area in the Northern Cape that consists of the Richtersveld Conservancy, the Richtersveld National Park and, on the Namibian side, the Ais Ais.
It has been variously described as the land God made in anger and the land that God forgot.
I would describe it as a place where God made normal hills and valleys and then changed His mind so He stripped the soil off the hills, ground it into sand and dumped it in the valleys. Thus we have a rather unusual area – a mountain desert.
On the South African side, its geographic boundaries are the Port Nolloth /Steinkopf road in the south and the Orange River in the North.
If dry, desolate, uninhabited desolation is your thing, if you want a place with no cellphones, no internet and no people; a place so quiet and so empty that you can take your soul out and examine it, then visit the Richtersveld. If you are looking for wildlife, though, don’t bother. In four days – off the river boundary - we saw one jackal and four kudu plus a zoo full of lizards. On the river, the birdlife is well-established as are the baboons and monkeys.
On the way down, we stopped at Sishen, the Kumba iron mine because they have a roadside display of mining vehicles. Big mistake – it gave my poor little Landcruiser an inferiority complex.
On the way down, we overnighted in Upington and Steinkopf before jumping off into the actual Richtersveld. On the way back, we overnighted in Upington and Vryburg.
All in all, a long way to go – two travel days down and two back – but well worth it. If time and circumstance allow, we will go back again this year.
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25-02-2013, 13:10 #2
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25-02-2013, 13:18 #3
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Richtersveld
Richtersveld 2012 Hand of God email.jpg
Hand of God
Richtersveld 2012 Approaching Richtersberg Cruiser email.jpg
Approaching RichtersbergLast edited by Chas Lotter; 25-02-2013 at 13:22.
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25-02-2013, 13:24 #4
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Richtersveld
Half Mens Tree
Richterveld 2012 Half Mens Tree email.jpg
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25-02-2013, 14:07 #5
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Re: Richtersveld
Great stuff, thanks for sharing! This is definitely on my 'to do' list.
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25-02-2013, 14:09 #6
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Re: Richtersveld
Richtersveld 2006
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25-02-2013, 16:20 #7
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Re: Richtersveld
Hi Chas
It looks like you had a wonderful trip!
My wife and I love the Richtersveld, but have seen it most often from the river, and most of it from water level (we spend most of our day avoiding the heat, by floating next to our canoes).
Just a small correction: I am not a botanist by any stretch of the (my?) imagination, but that pic is not of a halfmens (Pachypodium Namaquanum), but rather a kokerboom (Aloe Dichotoma).
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25-02-2013, 17:14 #8
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25-02-2013, 17:17 #9
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25-02-2013, 17:19 #10
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