Gorge Cottage, Augrabies: best view in South Africa

​By Roxanne Reid
If you want to stay in a cottage with one of the best views in South Africa, head for Oranjekom viewpoint in the Augrabies Falls National Park in the Northern Cape. This is where you’ll find Gorge Cottage and I promise the view will get your pulse thumping with excitement.

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​If you’ve been to the Augrabies Falls National Park before you may remember standing on the viewing platform at Oranjekom staring down at the Orange River gorge below in awe. You may even have muttered – as I did – that this would make a stunning spot for a house.

Well, it seems someone at SANParks had the same idea because Gorge Cottage was built under the viewing platform and opened to the public in April 2016. 

The view from the side of the cottage

The view from the front of the cottage

​Its greatest asset is its position on the cliff more than 200m above the river, seeming to break the laws of gravity. A wall of glass windows and sliding doors brings the outside in so you get to enjoy the view from almost every angle even while you’re inside the cottage. Outside, a sturdy fence means you feel safe and don’t have to worry about tumbling over the rocks into the gorge even if heights make your legs go wobbly.

​The cottage’s other most appealing feature is that come late afternoon other visitors have to leave the viewpoint to drive 10km back to the main camp by sunset. This means you have the whole place to yourself in romantic solitude. Your only neighbours from then until the following morning will be the odd dassie or klipspringer, a bat or an owl flitting by or an early morning Verreaux eagle flying overhead. It’s the kind of place that feeds the soul.

​The cottage is spacious and beautifully designed. Inside there’s a queen-sized bed, a wall of kitchen cupboards with gas hob, fridge and dining extension, a squashy sofa and coffee table. Outside are two braais, one in front and one to the side, so you can choose where you cook, depending on the season and your need for shade or shelter from the wind. The toilet and shower are about 25m away in a separate building.

​When we visited in March it was 44ºC outside at 16:00 and still 34ºC inside at 4:00 the next morning. This is because the cottage absorbs and holds heat from the surrounding granite rocks. We slept with all the doors and windows open to catch the slightest breeze (there’s insect netting on all of them). Although the cottage has no electricity – so no fan or air conditioning –management is already hatching a plan to install solar panels and a cooling system, after which summer conditions at Gorge Cottage should greatly improve.

The other niggle for those who need to pee in the middle of the night is that the toilet is a short walk away from the cottage. Luckily, management has listened to feedback from visitors and is planning to install an eco-loo in the main unit to solve this concern too.

[Update: The eco-loo was installed by the end of April 2017 and the cooling system is expected to be finalised by the end of June.] 

​Hot as our visit was, it was wonderful to watch the softening of the light as the sun set, to fall asleep listening to the sound of water rushing over the rapids below, to know that not a soul was going to disturb our peace. We woke early enough to watch the dawn glow creep over the horizon, to hear the call of birds and watch the rocks turn from black to pale pink and then glorious red.

If being immersed in nature, having 220-degree views and no human neighbours appeals to you as much as it does to me, you’ll love the Gorge Cottage at Augrabies Falls National Park.

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