Cliff Hangers

Birds of the Augrabies Gorge

- ANDREW JENKINS

Out on the broken plains of Bushmanland, the winding milk-chocolate flow of the Orange (or Gariep) River suddenly splits, narrows and accelerates. The main channel compresses millions of litres per second of turbid water into a torrent that surges through a smoothed bottleneck and roars out into a vast, dimly lit chasm. The water’s angry voice and the vapour born of its expressed energy fill the echoing cathedral it has spent millions of years carving from hard-baked rock. In a landscape of austerity and heat, the waterfall is an endless celebration of the vitality of the river, while the deep devastation of the gorge below is a monument to its enduring power.

Augrabies Falls National Park is located in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa and is naturally focused on its eponymous waterfall and the subsequent course of the Orange River. The park also extends to include a significant area of rugged terrain and mainly stunted succulent vegetation that sustains a modest diversity of dry-country fauna and flora. The landscape surrounding the river is flattish but undulating and complex, beset with exposed geology and dark, craggy rock formations, topped by ancient quiver trees frozen in angular poses.

The birdlife, while not prolific, features a surprisingly rich mix of Kalahari, Karoo, riparian woodland and wetland species, so that in a morning spent driving the sparse network of roads or wandering around the camp and its surrounds the diligent birder can easily compile a list of 40 to 50 species, ranging from Golden-tailed Woodpecker and Crested Barbet to Karoo Long-billed Lark and Cinnamon-breasted Warbler, Orange River White-eye and Namaqua Warbler, Rosy-faced Lovebird and Pygmy Falcon, and African Black Duck and Little Bittern. But for me these habitats and species are just curtain-raisers for the main event – the awesome spectacle of the gorge and the special birds that live in it.