Though I had a wet midyear break with a much-needed road trip, I returned on Wednesday with no further rain in sight.
Seems our friends have been proved correct; it will always rain if you go away with the Weather Guru.
In a very saturated Langkloof, any rainfall now turns farm roads into mud baths and docile streams into running rivers again, with water still being fed to the overflowing Kouga and Churchill dams.
With the countryside beautiful and green, all farm dams full and new dams of water appearing where there were just dry ditches, farmers have a lot to be grateful for.
That is except for the damage to infrastructure and most especially access roads, caused by the recent floods.
The famous road engineer, Thomas Bain, was entirely correct when he said that there were only three challenges when building roads and passes.
That is water, followed by water and finally water.
This I experienced first-hand over the weekend when I undertook a journey into the Kouga mountains in the Langkloof.
I had been dying to take this trip ever since the May floods but was prevented from doing so due to part of the R62 being washed away between Kareedouw and Joubertina.
To the locals’ and travellers’ delight the road has now been re-opened, though repairs are still ongoing along the R62, leading to many stop-goes which add to the travelling time.
Besides Meiringspoort, all the passes Bain built have stood the test of time and the weather.
Incidentally, though he assisted with Meiringspoort, he said it would never work and the only solution was to get out of the riverbed and go over the top, as he did with the Swartberg Pass.
This is one mean feat, considering that he did not have access to the technology of today.
Most of the passes that we travel on today were built in the late 1800s and la ot of traffic and water has traversed these roads and passes since then.
Travelling the farm roads where most of the tributaries start and later run into the mighty Kouga River, one gets an idea of how much water moved through the area during the recent floods.
The devastation it caused can only be realised when one sees it first-hand.
I was interested as to exactly how much water moved through the areas and consulted Google and Meta AI to assist.
I, however, got lost in all the zeros, but according to the experts (Gamtoos Irrigation Board) a volume of 6.6 Kouga Dams flowed over the wall by July 3 2026.
That is a massive 126-million cubic metres of water x 6.6, if one can imagine how much water that is.
Then one must also remember that the Kouga was at about 40% before the rains came.
One cannot truly comprehend that amount of water unless you have stood at the dam wall and seen the mass of water behind the wall.
Just imagine, in a utopian world if we could have stored all that water, we would almost certainly never have a water crisis for decades to come.
That is if our metro could plug a few of that ever-increasing number of water leaks.
I now wonder why the authorities have never contemplated building a few storage or flood control dams higher up in the Kouga catchment.
I suppose cost is one of the main factors.
One could wonder if more of the controversial farm dams were allowed, would the flow of water be stemmed.
This I doubt, as I saw quite a few farm dam walls washed away by the flood waters.
The masses of water started accumulating in the tributaries halfway up in the catchment and at Brandhoek, about 65km from the dam wall as the crow flies, and devastation could already be seen.
This is where the Huis River joins the Kouga.
Here, streams turned into torrents hundreds of metres wide and left scars and piles of rocks where the water ran that can still be seen three months later.
This left many farmers within the catchment stranded.
Some were stranded for up to two months as communities worked together to try to repair roads and tracks to get to their lands and livestock.
It amazes me how resilient these communities are in restoring these roads and in some cases making them better than they were before the floods.
In some instances, it will take years to restore all to normality.
Though every farm road showed clear signs of damage, with many washaways on downhills, the maximum devastation we saw was in the mountain valley near Assegaaibosch.
The area and road around the low water bridge was completely washed away, with the camp area called Ragels Rivier destroyed.
I was, however, amazed that the low water bridge survived the flood waters.
Much to my disbelief, most of the mountain passes we travelled that are cut into the mountain side, were not severely damaged.
The weekend’s rain that fell on the already saturated earth has caused immediate run-off, with streams and rivers now running strongly once again and further raising dam levels.
Our trip was not without problems, but luckily a guardian angel, by the name of Cuan Korsten, saved the day when a turbo pipe got dislodged causing our vehicle to go into limp mode in the middle of the mountains, with not much passing traffic.
Therefore, my safety tip for the week is especially for travellers.
This week in history:
2006: Widespread snow reported over large parts of the province, especially Robert Sobukwe Town (Graaff-Reinet) and Barkley East
Dam Levels
100.41% up from previous week at 100.19%
Impofu 100.85%
Weather Safety Tips:
When on isolated roads, where possible travel with at least one other vehicle. You never know when you can get stuck on a less-travelled wilderness road.
Now on Facebook, Instagram, and X: @WeatherGuruEC
Follow The Herald WhatsApp channel today and stay connected to the stories shaping our world.
The Herald
