Darlington Dam

A few months ago we spent a weekend on a friend's farm near Darlington Dam and he took us for a quick drive to see what the dam looked like. Unfortunately we didn't get to go to the dam wall itself, so my picture is of the runoff below the wall. Darlington Dam, also referred … Continue reading Darlington Dam →

How about visiting the Kouga Dam?

When was the last time you've been in the Gamtoos Valley? Perhaps I should ask, have you ever been for a drive up to the Kouga Dam? If the answer to both of these questions are "never" or "not recently" then there is no time like the present. After all the rain we have had recently the … Continue reading How about visiting the Kouga Dam? →

Gamtoos Series 2 – water canals

This is post #2 in the Gamtoos series featuring the Gamtoos River Valley west of Port Elizabeth. The valley is referred to as the food basket of the Eastern Cape due to the amount of fruit and vegetables being grown here. These farms all get their water from the Kouga Dam. Water is taken from the … Continue reading Gamtoos Series 2 – water canals →

Gamtoos Series 1 – Kouga Dam

I'm going through a very busy period at work having just come back from World Travel Market Africa in Cape Town and off to Durban for Indaba in a couple of days. Because of it I'm running low on photos and rather than skipping days I decided to keep the daily photo concept going and recycle some … Continue reading Gamtoos Series 1 – Kouga Dam →

Discovering PE’s oldest dam – Frames Dam

Its always nice to discover something or somewhere new. In this case it was something old. A quick geocache outing during lunch time took me into the Shark River Valley in Humewood and to the old Frames Reservoir. In the mid 1800's the fledgling town of Port Elizabeth was having water problems. As a stop-gap measure, … Continue reading Discovering PE’s oldest dam – Frames Dam →

The lake on Lakeside Road

After all the rain we had in Port Elizabeth the lake on Lakeside Road flooded its banks and closed the road for quite some time. I took a drive past there the other day to see how high it still was but it seems to have dropped back to its normal level. The lake is the biggest … Continue reading The lake on Lakeside Road →

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 … Continue reading Bulk River 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 … Continue reading Sand River Dam →