Photography

Adventure in the Richtersveld Summer 2023

Marlene toured the Richtersveld with her camera, husband Dana and friends in the far Northern Cape. The Richtersveld can be terrifying to explore and enchanting at the same time. Dana did the driving.Our party of four vehicles met up in Port Nolloth before setting off for our trip into the Richtersveld. We stayed in the peaceful McDougall’s Bay for two nights, before we set off to the Richtersveld National Park.We spent four nights exploring the park.

Sendelingsdrift
On arrival at Sendelingsdrift we knew that this was going to be an exceptional trip. We had already experienced hot and dry desert conditions but the arid landscape was speckled with a variety of flowering succulents and the Orange River ran peacefully through the mountains.

Tatasberg
The gravel road to De Hoop was easy-going. It is a lovely campsite next to the Orange River with excellent ablution facilities. Decades ago, families lived in De Hoop, and there were still some traces leftover of their lives in that far-off place. We cooked brunch there before we headed to our next destination – Tatasberg.

We decided to take the shortest route to Tatasberg, which runs next to the Orange River. Right from the outset the road was really tricky as we had to navigate our way over rocks and through bends and twists, hoping not to damage our vehicles. It was only 8km but took us about two hours.

On route, there were shepherds with dogs, guarding their sheep and goats.

The stay in Tatasberg was in lovely wooden cottages looking down onto the river.

I was able to take some beautiful photos of the layered mountains as the sun was setting.

Gannakouriep
The next day we departed for the next camp – Gannakouriep. The road was fair and we got to our destination quite early.

Our trip back was through the Hellskloof Mountain Pass. We left early and saw some lovely misty mountains and the ever-present vygies and fynbos. That was one of the most demanding roads I have ever travelled on.
We had a fabulous trip, but it was very tiring because of the demanding terrain.

Marlene du Plessis is from Johannesburg. She thoroughly enjoys taking photographs on and of her adventures around South Africa

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