Upington and the Orange River

The Largest Irrigated Vineyard Region In South Africa, Strung Along The Orange River In The Middle Of A Desert, Producing Table Grapes, Raisins And Wine Under Conditions No European Vineyard Would Recognise With River Rafting On The Braided Channels, The Longest Avenue Of Date Palms In The Southern Hemisphere, And The Role Of Being The Town Everything In The Northern Cape Is Reached Through · Upington, Northern Cape

Upington is the town everything in the Northern Cape is reached through - Kgalagadi two hundred and fifty kilometres north, Augrabies a hundred and twenty west, the Richtersveld and Namaqualand beyond - and it is worth a day in its own right for a reason nobody expects. This is the largest irrigated vineyard region in South Africa: the Orange River runs through a desert at about seventy-five millimetres of annual rainfall, and along its banks are thousands of hectares of table grapes, raisin vines and wine grapes growing under conditions no European vineyard would recognise. The co-operatives here are among the largest wine producers in the world by volume. There is also river rafting on the braided channels, an avenue of date palms a kilometre long that is said to be the longest in the southern hemisphere, and a church with a donkey statue outside it commemorating the animal that made irrigation possible. It is malaria-free and extremely hot.

On the Orange River in the Northern Cape, the service town for Kgalagadi 250 km north and Augrabies 120 km west, Upington, Northern Cape, South Africa

A town rather than a site. The Orange River wine route's tasting rooms keep daylight hours and MANY ARE CO-OPERATIVES RATHER THAN ESTATES, with short hours and some closed at weekends - ring ahead rather than touring on spec. The date palm avenue and the riverfront are open ground at any hour. River rafting and canoeing operators run from Upington and from Keimoes and Kakamas downstream, are SEASONAL AND FLOW-DEPENDENT, and book ahead. The Kalahari-Oranje museum and the donkey statue keep daylight hours. Upington has the region's airport, the only full-service shops for a very long way, and the fuel everybody heading north or west needs - FILL UP AND STOCK UP HERE, because Kgalagadi, Augrabies and the Richtersveld have little or nothing. Summer temperatures routinely exceed forty degrees. It is MALARIA-FREE.

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