North of Nieuwoudtville lies Bushmanland and the Bo-Karoo, two of South Africa’s greatest undiscovered secrets. Whereas Nieuwoudtville has a Mediterranean climate, these undiscovered secrets receive their rain rather intermittently during the summer months.
In 2000 parts of Southern African were subjected to incredible flooding. Early in March 2000 torrential rains fell in the Roggeveld area near Sutherland and Frazerburg. These floods fed the Renoster River, and I was fortunate enough to be on the bridge that spans the river on the road between Calvinia and Williston. I photographed the flood.
Eventually, in my eagerness to get photos, I was the only person left on the bridge – not very wise. This flood was an experience of a lifetime.
The flood vanished into vast pans of Bushmanland and the Bo-Karoo. When looking at the topography of these two undiscovered secrets, it is clear that for thousands if not millions of years, the Renoster, Fish and Sak Rivers have been the arteries that have fed water into these enormous pans. |
