Upington

The stretch of the Orange River where Upington now stands was long used by Korana and Nama herders, and the river islands and reed beds gave shelter to groups moving along the valley. In 1871 the missionary Christiaan Schröder established a station here, first called Olyvenhoutsdrift, and the settlement that grew around it was named after Thomas Upington, an attorney-general and later prime minister of the Cape Colony. The mission station now houses the town's museum.

Everything that followed came from water. Furrows and canals were dug by hand to lead water from the river onto the terraces, with water wheels to lift it, and the valley turned from thorn scrub into an irrigated strip of vineyards, lucerne, wheat and fruit. Keimoes downstream had its first irrigation furrow in 1882, and Kakamas was founded in 1898 as a church settlement for white farmers ruined by drought and rinderpest. Raisin production became the district's signature crop, alongside table grapes and, later, wine.

In the 20th century Upington grew into the administrative and commercial capital of a huge, thinly populated district, with a railway, an airport whose long runway was built for heavily loaded aircraft in desert heat, and a role as the last town before the Kalahari. Under apartheid its population was divided into separate residential areas, and Paballelo became known nationally during the 1980s for protest and for a mass trial arising from unrest there. Since 1994 the town has remained the gateway to the Kgalagadi and Augrabies parks, while solar power plants such as Khi Solar One have been built nearby.

This is an Afrikaans-speaking river town in a desert, and the culture reflects both. Afrikaans is spoken by almost everyone, in the distinctive rural form of the Northern Cape that carries words and rhythms from Nama and Khoekhoe speech, and English is heard too. Coloured and white communities both have deep roots in the valley, and family networks stretch along the river from Upington to Kakamas and beyond.

Farming shapes the year: pruning, the grape harvest in late summer, the drying and packing of raisins, and the constant management of water rights and canals. The agricultural show, farmers' co-operatives and church calendars organise social life, and the Dutch Reformed and mission churches remain central. Choir singing and the rieldans, an old celebratory dance of the San, Nama and Khoi, are strong traditions in the wider district.

The town is also a crossroads. Travellers heading for the Kalahari, the falls or Namibia stop here, and the hospitality industry has grown around that traffic, alongside guides, outfitters and 4x4 workshops. Sport means rugby and, in the townships, football, and canoeing and fishing draw people to the river. Manners are country manners: greetings before business, an unhurried pace, and a tolerance for heat that visitors take days to acquire.

About 125,000 people lived in the Dawid Kruiper municipality centred on Upington at the 2022 census, and the town is the only substantial centre for hundreds of kilometres. Agriculture drives the economy — table grapes, raisins, dates, wine and lucerne from the irrigated valley — supported by packing plants, cold stores, transport firms and the agricultural suppliers whose yards line the approach roads. Tourism, government offices, schools and a hospital add the rest.

Most residents live in Paballelo, Rosedale and the newer developments away from the river, while the older streets near the water hold guesthouses, offices and larger houses under trees. Commuting is short, and much of the workforce travels out to farms and packing sheds during harvest, when the population swells with seasonal labour.

The heat organises the day. Work starts early, the middle of the afternoon is slow, and the town comes outside again in the evening, when families walk along the river and the braai fires are lit. Water is the constant subject: allocation, canal maintenance, drought upstream and the level of the Orange. Unemployment, seasonal work and the cost of the long journeys to bigger centres are the standing local concerns, and power cuts have shaped routines for years.

Meat from the dry veld is the foundation. Kalahari lamb, grazed on herb-rich scrub, is grilled as chops over coals or slow-cooked in a potjie, the three-legged iron pot; game such as springbok and gemsbok appears as steaks, stews and biltong; and skilpadjies, lamb's liver wrapped in caul fat and grilled, are a braai favourite. Pap, the stiff maize porridge, and roosterkoek, dough cooked directly on the braai grid and split with butter and jam, go alongside.

The valley's produce sets Upington apart from the rest of the region. Raisins and sultanas are dried on the farms in enormous quantities, dates ripen on the valley's palms, and table grapes, peaches and oranges come off the river terraces in season. The cellars around the town make wine from vineyards irrigated by the Orange.

Everyday eating runs to braais, steakhouse grills, pies and takeaways, with vetkoek, fried dough filled with curried mince, and pap with stew common at roadside stalls. Nama and Khoekhoe influence shows in the use of mutton, goat and veld herbs, and after good rains Kalahari truffles are dug from the sand of the Kalahari to the north. Rooibos tea, grown further south-west, is drunk everywhere, and biltong and droëwors are the staple snack for the long drives.