The trip to Riemvasmaak

From the base of the ravine
Look at the shape of  the African continent in background.

Trip to Riemvasmaak 
We have had a busy few weeks, with visitors from Cape Town for a couple of nights and catching up with everyone here after our trip home.
Little has had a long weekend back at the farm arriving early on Friday 6^th August and departing on Monday 9^th, taking the Intercape bus on a 12 hour journey back to school for Tuesday morning.[ he is back safe and sound at school now!]

Louise, Christen and Floyd Fox Jnr.

Both fed up with chasing 3 year old Floyd over the rock maze as he skipped over it like a goat!

On Sunday we were invited to join the Fox family [they live in Augrabies] to take the trip to Riemvasmaak, hot springs in the mountains that we can see from the front of our farm.

We met the Fox`s at the entrance to their farm at 10.30am ,[ with instructions to bring plenty of cool drinks, ice and a toilet roll!] We travelled for a half an hour North West, on tarmac roads towards Namibia. The vines around Augrabies are already budding, it being even a few more degrees hotter than we are in Marchand [only 15 km down the road].
After a while we turned onto a gravel road, which brought us steeply  through a stunning twisty ravine in the mountains  where the Orange river is crossed by a huge new bridge.

The plateu in the background marks the Namibian border

           

 Then we turned onto an even more makeshift track, and travelled into the wilderness for about an hour meeting only one donkey en route.

Amazed that this donkey was snapped as we were travelling at great speed over rocks at the time!
he was the only living creature we saw on our trail, and was as amazed to see us as we were to see him!
I can just imagine him thinking ..."WHAT!!!"

The rockscape drive through the mountains was amazing, the vegetation differs from around us with many spiky aloes spread around the tumble of ricks, and some small "shepherds bush trees", clinging to the side of mountain faces. Soon we found ourselves travelling down a shingle track and very sheer drop into the ravine known as Reevansmaack. There are a few log style chalets here, but really nothing else for miles and miles.

Big, negotiating the terrain

The best way of describing this site is as a small oasis in the middle of an inhospitable and totally prehistoric landscape.

Down into the ravine

The land has been given to the black community here; they run this site under the auspices of the Reevmansmaak Trust. We paid around 70 Rand [ £ 5/6]to spend the day there. It is totally undeveloped with small handwritten signs and nothing but a dangerously steep decent [and acsent] to and from the hot springs.

At the base of the ravine are bulbous rocks forming a maze, which once negotiated, lead to three hot springs. In the maze of rocks, there are small areas where one can set up a braai and cook, apart from a small building with toilets on the main approach, there is nothing commercialised about this site at all.

Hot spring in the rock face

The natural acoustics, created by the sheer rock faces that surround the valley, cause a strange echo, so that one can sit and take in the stunning contrast of the blue, blue sky and the oranges rocks and listen to the peeling cry of the black eagles that circle way above in the thermals. There is no mobile reception here at all, so you do feel completely removed from the rest of the world.
Two of the natural warm springs here, have been manicured and bricked around to produce two small cobbled areas around the warm springs, the third is an area where the water has carved a deep bowl in the stone face and the water is clear and tepid and quite beautiful.

Little chillaxing in his "SIMPLES" t-shirt

Taz you will be delighted to see Little wearing the tee shirt that you gave him!
Floyd tells us that many of the local farmers will come here late in the afternoon, pitch a tent between the rocks, or rent one of the three chalets perched on the sides of the ravine. They will braai down by the springs until late at night..the night sky is stunning as the rockscape here, and then when everyone has had enough, they will meander back through the rocky maze to find their beds. It is apparently a regular day/night wilderness trip for many locals, who clearly don't consider themselves already close to nature in their farms along the Orange River.

Little relaxing on top of a rock while the boys get the braai started.

I have to say, the place was stunning, in the same brutal way that the rest of the landscape is here in the Northern Cape.
I was told that the name means "Ox tie up". This is where the drovers of years ago rested their cattle, having driven them through these inhospitable mountains; they bathed in the warm springs, in readiness for the long haul to Upington. Probably a further 175 km from here.
When we arrived Big was already churlish about the place and Little was being quite teenagerish over the whole thing, but as the day wore on, all of us began to relax and chill..it turned out to be a fantastic day. Very different to our usual Sundays!

Kissing rocks on top of the ravine...We kept fingers crossed that we wernt here when another  earth tremour started..