Augrabies Falls National Park

 
The Augrabies Falls in northwestern South Africa, near the frontier with Namibia, are one of the country's great natural wonders. The National Park established in 1967 to protect them (area 820sq.km/320sq. mi) is a region of extreme aridity with an annual rainfall of only 107mm/4.25in. The vegetation is sparse, consisting mainly of euphorbias and kocurbooms. Only on the banks of the Orange River, which flows through the National Park, is there denser tree cover.

The Orange River plunges in a series of cascades (the main fall 56m/184ft high), almost 150m/500ft across, into a granite gorge enclosed by rock walls up to 240m/800ft high, with a total length of 18km/1mi. In the language of the Hottentots, who held the falls in awe as a sacred place, the name Augrabies means "place of the great noise"; and indeed the falls, which rank among the six largest in the world, fully justify their name.

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Sunset at on the Klipspringer Hiking Trail.Sunset at on the Klipspringer Hiking Trail.
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