For us the highlight of our stay in Upington was definitely our visit to the Orange River - the largest perennial river in SA, which flows from the highlands of Lesotho to the Atlantic Ocean.

From the moment we woke up  - we were confronted with and astounded by its beauty and power. Our room at the Protea Hotel has a great little deck overlooking the River - so this morning we got to see it covered in mist, as the day slowly started waking up. 

We then headed off for our activity of the day: White Water Rafting Neus Gorge on the Orange River.  We were super excited and looking forward to an awesome time! An early morning saw us with swimsuits on (and admittedly jackets on... as it was FREEZING) making our way through to the tiny, but quaint little town of Kakamas. 

We spent a totally awesome day on the river. The water, as expected, was more than a tad chilly...but the excitement of the rapids warmed us up a wee bit. Eben, our guide, was great! He has recently started his own company...and his love for the river and chilled-out manner made our trip what it was. 

After surviving the first rapid, lovingly dubbed "Chicken Run"...and paddling for a while through some gorgeous scenery - we pulled our boats over onto a side bank...where Eben proceeded to whip up lunch. Amazing how food just tastes so much better when you're hungry...and outdoors, and have spent the day fighting rapids (and hypothermia ) :-) We all huddled round the fire on the sandbank...and enjoyed boerewors rolls, before manning the boats again, and making our merry way along. 

Think that Jon and I quite mastered the art of steering our little boat, as we didn't even capsize once (something we were quite proud of...) We will admit to going through two sets of rapids backwards though - but hey... think we managed to convince people that we planned it that way...so it's all good. 

Pulling out the river at about 3ish...we were thoroughly exhausted - and more than ready for an early night...but all in all - oh what a good day. 

Thanks to Eben from Liquid360Adventures for an awesome trip and experience - we would love to come back again one day... (perhaps in Summer!)

Long drive tomorrow - all the way to Grahamstown...

Catch up with you there

*Sa & Jon*