On the deck of the Red Rock River Camp, you can grab a front-row seat to the show: in this case, the soothing waters of the Orange River and its bustling birdlife. Bring your binoculars and see if you can spot the Orange River white-eye amid the riverine bushes. You won’t easily miss the Goliath heron; it’s probably standing downstream and fishing before it gets too dark.
Your hosts are Roché Schoeman and Adelaine Breedt – you’ll probably meet them again around the campfire tonight. They offer rowing tours and angling expeditions (yellowfish!) on this beautiful stretch of the river.
The route starts close to the Onseepkans border post in the Northern Cape – it links up with the Namibian route detailed on page 8. The landscape is one of contrasts. Right next to the water, vineyards lie in neat green blocks, but as soon as you drive away from the river, you enter a mountain desert where your ice cream has to be consumed in 30 seconds flat.
When you say goodbye to Adelaine and Roché at Red Rock River Camp, reset your odometer to 0. Within 500 m, you reach the Affieplaas butchery and kitchen where you can buy groceries and meat. They are open weekdays from 08:30 to 17:00 (Saturdays until 13:00). Just past Affieplaas is the border post where you turn right (GPS S28.73978 E19.30360) onto the R385 dirt road that takes you in a few long, straight shots to Pofadder. The R385 is always heavily corrugated; don’t try to talk and eat at the same time while driving, or you’ll end up biting your tongue.
At 7 km, there’s a road that turns left – it’s a shortcut to the N14 if you’re aiming for Kakamas. Keep going straight, but pause to check out the ancient road sign on the right-hand side of thestill says “South West Africa” instead of “Namibia”, there is interesting graffiti scratched into it by guys who were waiting for a lift. A regular destination was “Mas toe,” meaning Kakamas. One unfortunate man was on his way to Upington for a court case on 10 May 1991… all of this info you’ll find scratched into the green road sign. It’s like a Facebook wall, one with surprisingly few expletives… At 24 km is the farm Coboop, where a quiver tree forest stretches for almost 8 km on both sides of the road.
