Orange River – Onseepkans Gorge
Orange River – Onseepkans Gorge · northern cape
Grade
V
Length
40km
Duration
3 to 4 days
About
Best whitewater on the Orange (excluding inaccessible Augrabies Gorge). 40km, grade 2-4 (5), 3-4 days. Flow controlled by Vanderkloof and Bloemhof Dams. Put-in 300m down a dirt road to the left just before the Onseepkans bridge. Starts wide and mostly flat with braided channels. At low levels stay in the main current — smaller channels dead-end. CRITICAL: ~3km in the river splits around a long island. Take every right-hand channel — left channels go over the unrunnable Ritchie Falls. Right channels rejoin into Little Falls; if you swim, get to the right bank fast (large eddy). Campsite on the right. Ritchie Falls plunges into a serious gorge containing undercuts, siphons, bad keeper holes at high water, and a lethal whirlpool where falls and gorge currents meet. Gorge is beyond most paddlers. Gear can be lowered using rope-anchor studs in the flat rock, or abseiled. Rapid just below the falls forms two bad pour-overs at high water. Big Bunny gives fun big waves at any level. More scoutable rapids follow from the left bank. Final 15km is flat with good rapids. Take-out marked by the left-bank pump station.
Access
Put-in
Take-out
Permits
None
Recent sessions
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