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A Visit to the Sand River

Post 1

Willem

Q: What do you do if you fall in a South African river? A: You stand up and dust yourself off!

Well, that's how it is much of the time, and we have a river here that is called the Sand River, and which lives up to its name. But in seasons of exceptional rainfall, the river actually flows! And we've had exactly such a high-rainfall year and over the past weeks we've had so much rain that I felt sure of finding water in the riverbed.

So, today I climbed in my trusty pick-up and set off to find the elusive water of the Sand River! At least a small part of it ... I think it's a tributary of the main Sand River which flows northward into the Limpopo, and the road from Polokwane to the Unviversity of Limpopo crosses it a few miles outside of town.

And yes, it was flowing! Quite strongly. Here you can see:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/SandRiver1_zps4245cce9.jpg

That's the bridge where the road crosses the river.

More photos of a most unusual amount of water in this river, truly a historic occasion:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/SandRiver6_zps6666536f.jpg


http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/SandRiver2_zpsf5f5e049.jpg

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/SandRiver3_zps789a1e35.jpg

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/SandRiver5_zps692931ab.jpg

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/SandRiver4_zps314e03c0.jpg

These last two photos were taken showing the river upstream from the bridge:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/SandRiver8_zps2087ba64.jpg

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/SandRiver7_zpsc591f3e5.jpg

I also took photos around the region. There are hills with some pretty rock formations. Here is a ridge of rocks protruding at an oblique angle:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/RockyRidge_zps0fd730ec.jpg

Here's a wider view of the hills:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Hillscape1_zps2903b3e4.jpg

Some nice large Aloes growing on the hills:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Hillscape2_zps1c89f439.jpg

Here is a single, young aloe, the same species as the above, Aloe marlothii, growing on a rocky ridge:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Aloemarlothiionridge_zps3c1f9c94.jpg

This is a different aloe species, a stemless Aloe greatheadii, flowering in the bush, providing nectar for insects and birds like the Marico sunbirds I also glimpsed on this trip:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Aloegreatheadii_zps9cfa63dc.jpg

This is a Clematis brachiata, a slender climbing plant called Traveller's Joy. These delicate white flowers liven up the bush beside the river:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Clematisbrachiata_zps95baee24.jpg

And there were hidden mushrooms in the lush grass! I had to crouch down to get a shot of this one:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/HiddenShroom_zpsfa2271be.jpg

A short distance away I found shrooms in the open, crowded together on a cow pie. I think this is a different species, not as orange and with rounder caps:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/ShroomsontheCowpie_zpsbfd8622d.jpg

Finally, a video of the river in flow:

http://s360.photobucket.com/user/WillemvdMerwe/media/MOV09593_zps155b5604.mp4.html

I did not see much wildlife, but there were birds: I heard rock buntings on the hills, there were rattling cisticolas all over the place, sunbirds beside the river, and also a large gathering of pied crows on a sandy patch ... I didn't want to disturb them so I didn't go close enough to see what they were doing. There were also a kind of skink on the rocky hills, I don't know which kind since I've lost my reptile identification guide! There were also butterflies and other insects.

For a quick trip it was quite a lot of fun!



A Visit to the Sand River

Post 2

Peanut

Hi Willem

smiley - snork at falling in to the river and dusting yourself off!

Great pictures of the actual river flowing, I wonder how long it will be until it dries up again.

Sound like a great mini-trip in your trusty truck smiley - cool


A Visit to the Sand River

Post 3

cactuscafe

yay! Fine trip! And your pickup sounds great, I love pickup trucks. What make is it? (I'm a truck geek smiley - geek) heheh.

Great pics! There's something poetically haunting about the Sand River, I can't quite define what I mean, and then there's the silver/ochre light, and what a miracle to even watch the movie of it flowing, I could get obsessed with the Sand River in fact.

And the skies are also amazing in some of those photos, the cloudscapes.


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