Hartbeespoort and the Magaliesberg

Gauteng'S Nearest Water: A 1920s Irrigation Dam At The Foot Of The Magaliesberg, A Quartzite Range Around Two Billion Years Old And Among The Oldest Mountains On Earth, With A Cableway To The Ridge, A Snake And Animal Park, And A Weekend Strip Of Restaurants And Markets That Is Crowded, Trafficked And Honest About Being Neither Wild Nor Quiet · Hartbeespoort, North West

The Magaliesberg is a quartzite ridge running about a hundred and twenty kilometres west of Pretoria, and it is roughly two billion years old - which makes it one of the oldest mountain ranges on earth, older than almost all complex life. Against its northern foot the Hartbeespoort Dam was closed in 1923 to irrigate the valley, and because it is the nearest substantial water to Gauteng's fifteen million people it has become a weekend strip: restaurants, markets, a cableway to the ridge, a snake park, boats and a great deal of traffic. The row will be honest that this is neither wild nor quiet, and that the dam has had serious water quality problems with hyacinth and algal blooms, so swimming is not something to assume. What it is instead is convenient, cheerful and forty minutes from Pretoria, with a genuinely ancient mountain range above it and a cableway that gets you onto the ridge in minutes.

On the dam 35 km west of Pretoria, under the Magaliesberg range between Gauteng and the North West, Hartbeespoort, North West, South Africa

A dam and a weekend strip rather than a gated site. The shore roads, restaurants and markets keep their own hours and are busiest from Friday afternoon to Sunday, when the traffic around the dam is genuinely heavy. THE CABLEWAY TO THE MAGALIESBERG RIDGE IS PRIVATELY RUN WITH ITS OWN HOURS and closes in high wind, so check before planning around it. THE DAM HAS HAD SERIOUS WATER QUALITY PROBLEMS including water hyacinth and algal blooms - do not assume swimming is on, and ask locally about the current state rather than relying on a photograph. Boat operators and watersports run from several launches, weather and water permitting. The snake and animal park keeps daylight hours. Hartbeespoort is thirty-five kilometres west of Pretoria and about ninety from Johannesburg, and it is MALARIA-FREE.

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