The Baviaanskloof River is a river flowing through the

Cape Fold Mountains The Cape Fold Belt is a fold and thrust belt of late Paleozoic age, which affected the sequence of sedimentary rock layers of the Cape Supergroup in the southwestern corner of South Africa. It was originally continuous with the Ventana Mount ...

of the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

and eventually

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

provinces of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. The river's origin is in the eastern extremity of the

Little Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...

, and follows a

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

between these mountains eastwards. It ends at a confluence with the

Kouga River The Kouga River originates near Uniondale, Eastern Cape, South Africa, and flows eastward, where it joins the Groot River to form the Gamtoos just past the Kouga Dam. Its main tributary is the Baviaanskloof River, which joins its left bank b ...

, some 80 km from its source. It is flanked by the

Baviaanskloof Mountains Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve is a protected area in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Characteristics The Baviaanskloof - (Dutch for "Valley of Baboons") - lies between the Baviaanskloof and Kouga mountain ranges. The easternmost point of ...

to the north and the

Kouga Mountains The Kouga mountains are a mountain range on the border of the Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces in South Africa, stretching in an east–west direction. They are part of the Cape Fold Belt, beginning just east of Uniondale and stretching fu ...

to the south, and it receives numerous small tributaries from both. Agricultural settlements along the river include Studtis and Sandvlakte. The valley is situated about 35 km north of the

Langkloof The Langkloof is a 160 km long valley in South Africa, lying between Herold, a small village northeast of George, and The Heights - just beyond Twee Riviere. History The kloof was given its name by Isaq Schrijver in 1689, and more thorough ...

, which is comparable though larger. The

, which rises in the Langkloof has the isolated Baviaanskloof River as its major tributary. The Baviaanskloof river is part of the

Fish to Tsitsikama Fish to Tsitsikama WMA, or Fish to Tsitsikama Water Management Area (coded: 15),{{cite web , url=https://www.dwaf.gov.za/Hydrology/ , title=Hydrological Services - Surface Water Home , publisher=Dwaf.gov.za , date=2008-09-03 , accessdate=2015-05-03 ...

Water Management Area Water Management Areas (WMAs) are parts of South Africa that are managed by Catchment Management Agencies (CMAs). A CMA is established in terms of the National Water Act of 1998. (As of December 2020 only two CMAs have been established). The li ...

. ''Baviaan'', meaning baboon, is a translation of the river's original

Khoikhoi Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also ''Hottentot (racial term), Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 ...

name, ''i Ncwama'', also believed to mean "baboon". Beutler consequently named the river the ''Gomee'' or ''Baviaans''.

Robert Gordon Robert Gordon may refer to: Entertainment * Robert Gordon (actor) (1895–1971), silent-film actor * Robert Gordon (director) (1913–1990), American director * Robert Gordon (singer) (1947–2022), American rockabilly singer * Robert Gordon (scr ...

however named it the Prehns River, in honour of a commander of the Cape garrison.

Notes

Rivers of the Eastern Cape Rivers of the Western Cape {{SouthAfrica-river-stub

See also

Notes