Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South Africa

by Andrew A. Anderson

There are several roads from Lake N’gami crossing this desert to Damara, Ovampo, and on to Libebe, and the other villages on the Cubango. Every day we went out to hunt up the game to supply the people with food, which I omit to describe as it becomes monotonous.

Very few inhabitants are scattered over this part of the desert, few hills are to be seen, until we arrive at Lake N’gami, when the Lubalo, Makkapola and Makabana hills come into view, and it is round the lake that the people under the chief Molemo live, and at his kraal and others along the river-banks of the Zouga or Bot-let-le. The people are composed of Betuana, Barutsie, Makolo, Bushmen, and several mixed races; each tribe has a petty chief ruling over them, but all subject to the chief Molemo as far as his territory east goes, where the chief Khama joins. The principal villages are Sebubumpie, Mokhokhotlo, Mamakahuie, Mozelenza, Samaai, and numerous others occupied by Bushmen.

The produce of the northern district is collected by the Ovampo traders and brought down to the Walfish Bay, and by Portuguese traders from the Portuguese settlement at Benguela. The trade of Lake N’gami and the Zambese region is carried on by English traders from the Cape Colony, having communication by roads from Ba-Mangwato, the chief Khama’s station, and roads from the lake to Walfish Bay, passing the Ghanze chalk-pits, situated on the watershed, where permanent water is obtained. Many thousand Bushmen live in the more unfrequented parts of the desert, having no settled abode, but remove from water to water as it becomes scarce; there are three separate tribes, the Mesere, Kasaka, and Kaikaibrio, and also some Bakalahara. The greater portion of this part of the Kalahara within the Zambese basin is limestone, covered in places with deep sand, but vegetation is very luxuriant—splendid grasses, and magnificent timber.

It is a good corn-growing country, a variety of valuable herbs come to great perfection, every kind of European plants and fruits thrive; water can be obtained by digging,—a splendid country for immigration.

The Southern and Western Portion of the Kalahara, within the Orange River Basin, the Waters of which fall into the South Atlantic Ocean.

The Orange river is the only outlet to the sea to convey the water brought down by the ancient river system that drains the south, the central, and the western divisions of this extensive and important portion of the Kalahara desert. The Orange for 250 miles forms the southern boundary. The rivers that drain the north-western and the central part of the Kalahara are the twin streams Nosop and Oup, appropriately called twins, as the two join for twenty miles and again separate, both running parallel to each other within a short distance, entering the Molapo close to the great bend, where that river takes the name Hygap, and flows south, and enters the Orange at Kakaman’s drift. The Nosop rises in the Waterberg of Damaraland in two head-waters called the Black and White Nosop, which unite north of Westly Vale and join the Oup at Narukus. The Oup rises in Damaraland in latitude 22 degrees, under the name Elephant river, and gathering the waters of other small branches, joins the Nosop at Narukus for twenty miles, then becomes an independent stream and, as I have stated, falls into the Molapo. Several shallow watercourses traverse the desert, but are not of sufficient importance to merit a description. The other river connected with the above system is the Molapo, which rises on the west slope of the central watershed at an altitude of 5350 feet, in 26 degrees 5 minutes South latitude, 26 degrees 25 minutes East longitude, where a plentiful supply of pure water flows throughout the year, and takes a westerly course to the great bend in latitude 25 degrees 50 minutes East, longitude 21 degrees 16 minutes, when it takes the name Hygap, as already stated, receiving in its course the small streams Moretsane and Setlakoola. The Kuruman river rises in the south of the Kuruman mission station, and with its small tributaries flows west and enters the Hygap below the great bend. The Back river commences in a range of the Brinus mountains, a beautiful and picturesque group, several thousand feet in height, of granite formation, well-wooded in the kloofs and ravines. The peculiar feature of the river is that it has two outlets, one to the east into the Hygap, the other to the west into the Great Fish river. South of this river three mountain streams drain the southern Kalahara, viz. the Nisbet, Aamo, and Keikab, which fall into the Orange to the west of the Hygap. The Great Fish river, which completes the river system of the Kalahara in the Orange river basin, rises in the Awas mountain in Damaraland, 22 degrees 40 minutes South latitude, 17 degrees 30 minutes East longitude, at an altitude of 6400 feet, and flows south for 430 miles, and enters the Orange river ninety miles from its mouth. The country through which it flows is very dry from the scarcity of rain. There are no important streams in the east, but on the west there are many tributaries that drain the high mountain country. The Chun rises in the Mitchell mountains, on the border of Great Namaqualand, receiving the Kurick branch, passing through a beautiful and wild country to the south of Nababis station. The three small tributaries of the Great Fish river to the north of the Chun in 22 degrees 32 minutes South latitude, are the Ganap, near Reheboth station; the Houra and Manabis; south of the Chun are the Huntop, Koros, and the Amhup, all receiving their water from the high lands of Great Namaqualand. The principal stations on these rivers are the Amhup, Bethany, Kachasa, Kawais, Reems, Hudenap, Brakhout, and a few others of recent date.

The inhabitants are of various tribes, called the Namaquas, Veld-Schoeners, Bundelswaarts, Hottentots, Korannas, Kaffirs, Gobabies, and Bushmen; some of the former cultivate the soil, use ploughs, and keep cattle and sheep; they live near the small fountains and along the river-banks, where they procure water by digging and permanent pits. They live under petty captains. There are several mission stations. Copper is found in many parts of the country, and copper-mines are worked in the south near the Orange river. The geological formation is granite, gneiss, trap, and amygdaloid. From the magnitude of this river, it is evident the country at one time must have been well supplied with rain, as it is a deep, broad, and stony stream, showing how rapid must have been the flow of water down it. Fine timber and bush grow in the kloofs and along the banks; many of the hills are very picturesque, and the country produces fine grasses for cattle.

The trade of the country is greatly improving and is supplied by colonial traders from Port Nolloth on the west coast in Little Namaqualand, which is in the Cape Colony; a railway from that port to the copper-mines on the Orange river has been for many years at work. In the Kalahara desert on the east of the Great Fish river, and the southern portion up to the Hygap river and south of the Brinus mountain and Back river, are several stations and kraals. Nisbet or Barth is the most important, where many Griquas are settled, also at Nabos, Luris, Akuris, Blydver-Wagh, Aams, Oribane, Ariam, and others. The Griquas cultivate the ground, and keep large herds of cattle and sheep, and trade largely with the Cape Colony. Hottentots, Korannas, Bushmen, Kaffirs, Namaquas, and small communities of other tribes live on the banks of the Orange and along the streams, with their cattle-posts, which of late years has greatly added to their wealth and enabled the people to trade largely with the colony.

The bold outline of the lofty hills with their thickly wooded slopes and kloofs add greatly to the beauty of the landscape, more particularly along the Orange river, where the rich vegetation, fine timber and bush, forming deep belts on both sides; the rugged and perpendicular rocks of many colours, which form its banks, clothed with lovely creepers hanging down in festoons with their scarlet pods, make the river scenery very beautiful; and to add to its charm the dense bush swarms with the grey monkey, baboons, and every variety of the cat tribe, even to the lion; pheasants, partridges, guinea-fowl, legions of snipes, ducks, geese, moor-hen, plovers, eagles, vultures, and a variety of hawks, some of them of great size, measuring from tip to tip eight feet; also the heron, crane, and stork, and a variety of others, in addition to the smaller tribes of birds with brilliant plumage.

The otter is very plentiful, the banks being covered with their spoor; also the porcupine. There are a great many islands, many of them large and thickly wooded, and about 300 miles up the stream the beautiful and picturesque waterfall, the Aukrabies, which has a fall of over ninety feet, is a grand sight when the flood-waters come down in their annual flow, rising above their ordinary level from twenty-five to thirty feet, bringing down large trees that go rolling and crashing as they are carried along by the rushing water.