Deep in the Drakensberg in Lesotho, known as the Senqu river, rises and flows South Africa's major river, the Orange River, many kilometers away from its abundant resources. From where the river leaves Lesotho and enters South Africa, the river brings with it old mysteries and legends of untold treasures and long-forgotten secrets.

Orange River origin Maluti Mountains in Lesotho

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Orange river snakes westwards

Twisting and curling, carving and snaking in a westward direction across an astonishing distance of about 2200 kilometers, South Africa's largest river eventually breaks through the sandbar and flows out into the Atlantic Ocean at Alexander Bay on the West Coast of South Africa. It is here where the sea and the Orange River meet, where the memories lie of authentic adventures, of riches, lost and found, of escape and death.

Orange River mouth at Alexander Bay

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Bartholomeu Dias anchored his ship, where sea and river meet

That meeting place of the river and the sea holds an early memory of Bartholomeu Dias. In 1487 he left a store-ship, anchored there with a crew of eight and on his return some months later, all but one of the crew had disappeared. It is recorded that this sole survivor literally died of joy at the sight of his comrades. The ill-fated sailors had no idea that just below their feet, lay a fortune of diamonds. About 290 years later, the famous explorer, Lieutenant-Colonel R.J. Gordon, wallowed upon the river, named it the Orange, in honor of the Dutch ruler, the Prince of Orange.

First trading post was built on a treasure of beautiful diamonds

Much later, Sir James Alexander, who worked the copper mines upriver, established a trading store on the same spot, also blissfully unaware of the enormous wealth below his feet. It is to this man, incidentally, that we trace the origin of the later name given to the spot, Alexander Bay.
One of the most famous prospectors in South African history, Fred Cornell, later decided to follow up the rumors and myths about the presence of diamonds in the river. He risked life and limb, prospecting for diamonds all along the river, but he also missed Aladdin's cave at Alexander bay by a few hundred meters.

A freak of nature

From the first recorded visit by Dias in 1487 until 1927, when, in January 1927, a freak of nature placed the diamonds in the hands of a certain Dr. Hans Merensky and within a few weeks, he became a very rich man. For 640 years, the river had managed to clutch its riches to its breast.

Stones pure and beautiful

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State steps in with barbed wire, guns, and searchlights!

Shortly after the discovery of diamonds, the State stepped in with barbed wire fences, guns, and searchlights. Desperately hordes of men hurried from every corner of South Africa to make their fortune, almost causing a revolution.
Some of the diamonds that were found in the area were so superb, the stones so pure and beautiful, that they looked as if they had been already cut.

Smuggling of Diamonds

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Men tried every trick in the book to smuggle diamonds

With the discovery of diamonds, illicit diamond-buying began and a traffic that will continue until there are no more diamonds in the ground. At one stage, so many diamonds were thrown into the markets of Amsterdam and Antwerp that the control of the world diamond trade was under severe threat. Men in the state diggings tried every single way to smuggle out diamonds. Diamonds were swallowed by them, inserted into cuts in their skin. To this day human creativity surpasses all efforts at detection and parcels of diamonds leaving South Africa on their way to London, New York and Amsterdam where it is not a crime to carry uncut diamonds in one's possession.

Diamond-bearing Kimberlite

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Diamonds gently washed down slopes to West Coast

People say that many years ago there was extensive diamond-bearing kimberlite, of which today's mines at Venetia, Jwaneng, Premier, and Orapa are remnants. These pipes were eroded and over many years, the stones made their way down the gentle slopes into rivers and were washed down to the West Coast.

Augrabies Water Falls

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A Mystical creature living in a bottomless pit

We cannot leave the story of the Orange River diamonds without mentioning the river's mystical creature. Very much like the Nyami-Nyami of the Victoria Falls, the Orange River has a snake god that is said to live in a bottomless pit at the base of the Augrabies Falls in the swirling pools of the King George Cataract. The Falls, situated 120 kilometers from Uppington, is actually higher than the Victoria Falls and as the Augrabies myth recounts, it is the hole in the bottom of the falls that is the origin of all the diamonds in the area.

Orange has a brand new name

South Africa's most important and longest river, boasts a proud new name. The Orange is now known as the Gariep, its original Nama name. There is still a myriad of unexplored stories to share with us.

Does the 'snake god' lives here?

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Points of interest along the lower Orange River

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