Flying Adventure: Winelands Namaqua Karoo – Day 1 (FAWB – FAKU – FAAugrabies):

Today marks the start to a flying adventure across South Africa. For this first day we aim to reach the Augrabies Falls in the Northern Cape province.

The present restrictions on international travel due to the Covid19 pandemic do not make it practical to cross borders. But South Africa has more than enough hidden corners to explore and enjoy!

Unlike most other adventures, this is an unplanned tour. He is therefore not in a position to share an outline of the intended route. Simply because there’s no such plan. We will decide on the go where we fly to based on what sounds interesting and where the weather is fine and pleasant.

For the first two days he has some passengers who will join him on the way to Stellenbosch in the Cape Winelands.

Pretoria to Kuruman

This time of the year, the Northern Cape province is a very weather safe territory. The forecast has blue skies all along our route.
We are therefore all excited and take off from Wonderboom airport in Pretoria in the early morning.

For our initial leg we route low level over the Magalies mountains and over the farmland of the North West province to Kuruman for a short break and some refreshment.

Kuruman is about half way on our total route for today and thus an ideal place for a short stop over. The town is famous for its natural spring, The Eye of Kuruman, which produces around 20 000 cubic meters of crystal clear potable water every day throughout the year. He had visited this beautiful little spot during a road trip some years back.

As the airport is situated somewhat outside of town, it’s not very practical for his passengers to visit the spring on this occasion. But nevertheless, we enjoy our little break at an otherwise empty and human-less airfield.

Kuruman to the Augrabies Falls

Human-less doesn’t mean life-less though. As we are about to taxi out for take off, there are two horses, which block our way onto the runway. It’s holidays, so no reason to get frustrated here. We keep a safe distance and wait until they move off the tarmac in search of some grass.

As we reach midday the temperatures are reaching maximum and are well over 30 degrees Celsius. And with that come turbulences, which make it a fairly bumpy last leg to the Augrabies Falls.

It becomes very dry and arid as we fly over the southern extension of the Kalahari towards Upington. From Upington we join the Orange river with all the green grape farms along its shores and soon reach the airstrip of Dundi Lodge, which is situation right by the Augrabies Falls.

He has been staying over at Dundi Lodge already on a previous trip. It is certainly one of the best places out here and with its own private landing strip definitely the most convenient as a fly-in destination.

The choice wasn’t wrong, as his passengers equally enjoy the outstanding hospitality and service at Dundi.

The hot afternoon is spent at the pool over a few cold beers and a hearty meal to relax for our next leg tomorrow, down to the cape.