Upington Attractions

ATTRACTIONS

UPINGTON ACCOMMODATION AND ATTRACTIONS

The Green Kalahari region presents a number of attractive sites and place that is a must for the visitor to see. A few comes highly recommended and are true highlights on the program.

* The Augrabies Falls National Park

* Riemvasmaak

* The Red Dune Route

* The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

* The Orange River wine Cellars

For the very adventurous, The Molopo Kalahari Lodge can arrange a 4 or 5 day experience on the Kalahari Wilderness Trail into Botswana. This requires some preparation and it requires two 4x4 vehicles. You can't get much more wild as you sleep on top of your vehicle at night with lions keeping a distant watch. You will find wildebeest, hartebeest, warthog, duiker, springbok, gemsbok, eland, kudu, impala, to name a few. And you will find predators such as lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena (brown and spotted), caracal, African wildcat (this cute little kitty may look like a house cat, but don't pet it!).

They can arrange nature walks with their bushmen guides; day and night game drives on local game farms; ultra-light airplane flights (with proper notice); visits to areas of local legend, including the Lost City of the Kalahari, and infamous rogue and highwayman Scotty Smith's fort.

We can take you to Augrabies Falls National Park, and for visits to local wine estates. There are so many things to do and see!

Witsand Nature Reserve has, since it’s earliest times, been the hub of human activity because it was one of the few reliable sources of permanent water in the region. Archaeologists have found several Stone Age sites reflecting the changing lifestyles throughout many thousands of years. Pottery shards and stone tools reliably dated within the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries AD, reveal that Stone Age herders such as the Korana used the area.

Tswana farmers also settled west of the Langberg but were forced back eastwards by droughts and conflicts before the nineteenth century AD. George Stow, a geologist, paid the "Wittesandt" a visit in 1872 and reported that "the only inhabitants at present living there are a small tribe of Bushmen" who retained "many of their old habits and customs." White traders and farmers began to settle along the Langberg in the late nineteenth century. To this day the stone walls erected by the Boer rebels, en route to the then German-occupied South West Africa (Namibia), on the high dunes to the east of the quartzite basin are visible. One can only imagine what thoughts have flowed through the minds and hearts of many people throughout the ages who have gazed across the vast Northern Cape landscape from that very vantage-point.

Chalets:

• The Four-star accredited chalets accommodate a total of 60 guests.

• Ten individual thatched-roof, 3 bed-roomed, self-catering, airconditioned chalets.

• One of the ten chalets was designed to be wheelchair friendly.

• One of the ten chalets is used for honeymooners.

• Each chalets can sleep six people.

• Chalets superbly positioned for privacy and a real Kalahari experience.

Spitskop Nature Reserve & Kalahari Monate Lodge was named after Spitskop, an impressive granite koppie 13 kilometres outside the fast growing town of Upington in the Northern Cape. Spitskop Nature Reserve consists mainly of sandy flats interrupted by two rocky outcrops and measures 5 641 hectares of which almost 3 000 hectares are open to visitors.

Game species include red hartebeest, eland, zebra, gemsbok, steenbok and large herds of springbok. There are also an array of smaller mammals like the Suricate, Squirrel and Mongoose. Reptiles found includes Tortoise, Puff Adder and Cape Cobra. The most often seen birds are Ostrich, Goshawk, Fiscal Shrike , Kori Bustard and Namaqua Sandgrouse.

Visitors can travel on good gravel roads while watching game. For the more energetic there are three hiking trails, varying in length, with an overnight hut. At Spitskop (the koppie) there is a sheltered viewpoint equipped with a telescope.

Accommodation

* 6 thatched roof self-catering chalets (sleeping 3 persons)

* 3 x single bed or 1 x double bed and 1 x single bed (Interleading door connects 2 chalets, providing

accommodation for 6 persons)

* Fully equipped modern kitchen with large fridge/freezer

* Bathroom with shower

* Linen and towels

* Air conditioner/heating system

* Built-in braai on patio

The Tierberg Nature Reserve lies 4 km from the town of Keimoes on the road to the Augrabies Falls National Park. Teaming with springbok, Tierberg covers an area of 160 hactres and is noted for its many aloes, most of which are winter flowering. Spring sees many succulents in full flower. The most numerous species is Aloe gariepensis. It is named after the Gariep (the old Khoikhoi name for the Orange River).

At the summit of the reserve, there is a lookout with a marvelous view across the Orange River Valley.

Boesmansgat is a unique natural sinkhole that is renowned as the second deepest and largest sinkhole in the world, with a depth of about 299m. It is filled with fresh water and has been the site of numerous diving attempts at world records. Boesmangat has claimed the lives of many divers, the most recent was the renowned Australian diver, Dave Shaw in January 2005.

Boesmansgat is found on the farm "Mount Carmel". Mount Carmel Safaris is a warm, friendly Guest Farm, where the visitor has the opportunity to view some fine game. Mount Carmel is situated 30 km from Danielskuil, on the Kuruman road.

The area is legendary for it's diverse ecological systems and intriguing geological structures. There is the excitement of game drives, photographic safaris, horse riding, hiking and swimming.

Accommodation in the game lodge is of the highest standard and the comfortable rooms are fully serviced.

Boegoeberg Dam was constructed by the Department of Irrigation during the economic depression of the 1930's as a measure to relieve unemployment. The dam wall is more of a barrage than a dam with a maximum height of only 10.7 m and approximately 622 m long. Boegoeberg Dam is surrounded by the Kalahari’s red dunes and countless kokerbome (quiver trees). The dam is a watersports and anglers’ Mecca..

Situated 35 km from Groblershoop on a gravel road, the Boegoeberg Dam was formed when a 10m high weir was constructed in 1929. The construction formed part of an extensive economic development plan to uplift the poor white Afrikaners at the time. The name of the dam derives from the Boegoe plant that grows wild in the surrounding hills. The plant was widely used in traditional medicine. The dam itself is impressive as substantial as it is hidden.

Stretching back from the dam wall, the Boegoeberg Dam Holiday Resort has acres of shaded camp ground. You can hike into the Langeberg from there, or use it as a base from which to explore the roaring sands of the Witsand Nature Reserve. The Boegoeberg Holiday Resort have six luxury self-catering chaletts with 5 beds each at Boegoebergdam. Located on the hills, with a beautifull view of the dam. Delightfully furnished the cottages have a fully equipped kitchen. There is a swimming pool and BBQ/braai and laundry facilities on request.

Fishing is done in the river nearby and a jetty for boats is available. The water of the dam provides excellent opportunities for skiing, canoeing and sailing.

Verneukpan is a short drive of 115km south from the town of Kenhardt on the way to Cape Town. This is a vast dry salt pan which is ideal for aerotow operations as you can launch and land in any direction you choose. It was used in 1929 by Malcolm Campbell to set the then land speed record of 350km/h in his Bluebird. The track that he compacted on the pan is still visible today. The surface is pretty rough with rocks and brush over a great portion of the pan.

Verneukpan is the undisputed ultimate kiting destinations in South Africa. Verneukpan is a 100% flat surface claimed to be a dried up lake estimated 57 km long and 11 km wide.

Verneukpan is the place where South African landspeed record holder and former fighter pilot Johan Jacobs died tragically on 27 June 2006 when his jet car, Edge, went out of control and flipped while travelling at close to 500km/h during a practice run for an attempt to break the 24-second world record for the standing mile over 1,64km.

The vast salt plain, back in the late 1920s, saw Malcolm Campbell fail to break the world land speed record when the coarse surface damaged his tyres and in the early 1950s Cape Town's Vic Proctor try for the world motorcycle record on a Vincent HRD Black Lightning but crash at around 160km/h.

The wide-open spaces of Verneukpan offer ideal opportunities for parasailing and the many outlook posts is ideal for birdwatching.

The Kokerboom Forest is situated 10km south of Kenhardt on the Brandvlei road to Cape Town and is now a nature reserve. The kokerboom "quiver tree" is a giant aloe which produces yellow flowers in June. This slow-growing plant with a smooth bark and grayish-green leaves is excellently adapted to arid conditions since it is able to store water in its trunk. In the Kenhardt area there are some 700 of these bizarre trees, which grow to a height of 4m. The Bushmen "Khoi San" used to make quivers for their arrows from the wood of the kokerboom, hence its name.

The Kokerboom Trail, which provides the opportunity to walk through the kokerboom forest, is about 4 km long. If you arrive here at about sunset, you will feel that you have entered another world. on the trail are beautiful quiver trees, some with special formed weaver birds nests. All kind of quartz lie scattered along the trail. Carrying of water a necessity as it is very hot in summer.

Declared a reserve by the old Cape Nature Conservation department only in 1993, the forest is as yet hardly known abroad. Although the forest is on the privately owned Driekop Farm, the reserve part is open to the public throughout the year. No charge.

Take a relaxing cruise on Sakkie se Arkie on the Orange River and watch the sun set over the river.

Sakkie Se Arkie is a floating bar on the Orange River in the style of a double decked ark (like Noah's Ark). The owner, Sakkie Spangenberg, is an experienced skipper that knows the Orange River like the palm of his hand.

Go on a sunset cruise on the Orange River, watching the sun set over the Mighty Orange with a glass of bubbly while the catfish "barbers" are jumping to feast on insects above the surface of the river. The cruise takes you past the island holiday resort and underneath the two bridges crossing the Orange River.

Sakkie Se Arkie - for the party of a lifetime, while you are cruising on the Orange River, in a floating cabin on the water. Your hosts are Sakkie and Annemarie.

Book at http://www.arkie.co.za