Bulk River valley

In yesterday's post I wrote about the Bulk River and Sand River that flows into the Elands River west of Port Elizabeth.  The Sand River Dam is fairly close to the Elands River Road while the Bulk River Dam can just be glimpsed from the road.  In the picture is the Bulk River with the dam barely visible higher up the valley.

Sand River Dam

Port Elizabeth's earliest water supply came from the Shark River at Happy Valley and the Donkin Stream next to the Donkin Reserve.  As the city started to grow in its early days of development the demand for water far exceeded this meager supply.  After a competition held by the Port Elizabeth city council in 1862 to find proposals to supply the city with water, a weir and small dam was built in the Van Stadens River.  This was later followed by the Bulk River (1903) and the Sand River (1907) dams in the Elands River Valley, both which can be seen driving along the Elands River Road.  Of cause these dams have since been replaced as the main supply dams by the Kouga, Churchill and Mpofu dams.  Both the Sand River and Bulk River are tributaries of the Elands River which in turn at its concourse with the Kwazunga River forms the Swartkops River.  I know all of the is a mouth full but it's info I never knew until I started researching the Sand River Dam which can be seen overflowing in the picture.

Testing the water

There are many fresh water springs along the Schoenmakerskop coastline with water collecting in little pools and running down to the sea.  Here Chaos Boy is "testing" to feel how cold the water is on our walk along the Sacramento Trail.

Water crisis

While the rest of the country has had wide spread flooding over the last month or so, the parts of the Eastern Cape and Southern Cape, including Port Elizabeth and environs, are in the mids of the worst drought in 150 years. In some areas the situation has entered crisis proportions. Some towns has just about run out of water. Farmers are really struggling and the summer fruit in the Langkloof will be way under par this year. Here in Port Elizabeth we have very strict water restrictions and if we don't get any significant rain our dams will be dry by October.

outlying areas #2

Yesterday we started on a journey to the nearby farming village of Patensie, via the Winterhoek mountains. Along the way (at S33 43 36, E 25 05 59, if you want to look it up on GoogleEarth) we came across one of the dams that supply PE with water. The Bridge we stood on to take this photo is called the William Snyman Bridge, Sand River. I have done a more detailed post about the first part of the journey here, with a map showing the route we took, and also showing Port Elizabeth in relation to St Francis, so you can get a better idea of how it all fits together. The flowers in the foreground are typical Eastern Cape Fynbos, part of the Cape Floral Kingdom, the smallest but richest of the world's six floral kingdoms.