Gariep Dam
The Largest Dam In South Africa, Holding Back The Orange River Behind A Wall Nearly A Kilometre Long To Irrigate The Eastern Cape And Generate Power, With A Nature Reserve Of Springbok And Black Wildebeest On Its Shores, Water Sports On The Reservoir And The N1 Crossing It Exactly Halfway Between Johannesburg And Cape Town · Gariep Dam, Free State
The Gariep is the largest dam in South Africa, holding back the Orange River behind a wall nearly a kilometre long on the Free State and Eastern Cape border, and the N1 crosses within sight of it exactly halfway between Johannesburg and Cape Town. It was built between 1966 and 1971 to irrigate the Eastern Cape through a tunnel under the Suurberg and to generate hydroelectricity, and the reservoir behind it is big enough to have its own weather and a shoreline measured in hundreds of kilometres. There is a nature reserve on the shore with springbok, black wildebeest and a large herd of Cape mountain zebra, water sports on the reservoir, and a small town that exists for the dam and the road. The row will not inflate it: this is a dam, a reserve and an N1 stop, and that is a perfectly good reason to break a thousand-kilometre drive. It is malaria-free and bitterly cold on a winter morning out here.
Where the N1 crosses the Orange River on the Free State and Eastern Cape border, 200 km south of Bloemfontein, Gariep Dam, Free State, South Africa
The reservoir, the shore roads and the town are open ground at any hour. THE DAM WALL ITSELF IS SECURED INFRASTRUCTURE and WHETHER WALL ACCESS OR GUIDED TOURS ARE AVAILABLE VARIES WITH SECURITY AND WATER LEVELS - the row does not promise them, and asking locally is the only reliable approach. The Gariep Dam Nature Reserve keeps daylight hours with a conservation fee and has the game, the shore drives and the viewpoints. Water sports, boat hire and fishing run from several launches, seasonally and depending on the level. The town has fuel, a few places to stay and basic shops, which is the practical point of it on the N1. Accommodation fills over South African long weekends and holidays. Gariep Dam is two hundred kilometres south of Bloemfontein on the N1, and it is MALARIA-FREE and bitterly cold on a winter morning.