The Mzimkulu River is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

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 ...

. In the past, the Mzimkulu formed part of the border between

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 ...

and

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

provinces. Presently this river is part of the

Mvoti to Umzimkulu Water Management Area Mvoti to Umzimkulu WMA, or Mvoti to Umzimkulu Water Management Area (coded: 11), Includes the following major rivers: the Mvoti River, uThongathi River, Mdloti River, Ohlanga River, Mngeni River, Sterkspruit River, Lovu River, Mkomazi River, M ...

. In late February of every year, the river is host to one of South Africa's most popular canoe races, the Drak Challenge.

Course

It rises in the

Drakensberg The Drakensberg (Afrikaans: Drakensberge, Zulu: uKhahlambha, Sotho: Maluti) is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, which encloses the central Southern African plateau. The Great Escarpment reaches its greatest elevation – within th ...

mountains just north of Rhino Peak, with the source being on the Lesotho border. It flows southeast towards the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

, which it enters through an

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

Port Shepstone Port Shepstone is a large town situated on the mouth of the Mzimkhulu River, the largest river on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast of South Africa. It is located halfway between Hibberdene and Margate and is positioned 120 km south of Durban. ...

. Its main tributary is the

Bisi River Bisi may refer to: Given name * Bifus or Bisi (f. 670), English bishop * Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi (born 1963), British-Nigerian activist and author * Bisi Afolabi (born 1975), female track and field athlete from Nigeria * Bisi Akande (1939, ??), gove ...

which joins its right bank about halfway down its course. Towns on the Umzimkulu include

Underberg Underberg is a digestif bitter produced at Rheinberg in Germany by Underberg AG. It is made from aromatic herbs from 43 countries that undergo inspections and are formulated based on a secret recipe of the Underberg family, whose members are p ...

and

Umzimkhulu Umzimkhulu is a town in Harry Gwala District Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The town lies 243 km north-east of Mthatha and 18 km south-west of Ixopo. It developed from a trading-post and was laid out in 188 ...

Ecology

The scaly yellowfish ''(Labeobarbus natalensis)'' is a fish found in the Umzimkulu River System as well as in the

Umgeni The Umgeni River or Mgeni River ( zu, uMngeni) is a river in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It rises in the "Dargle" in the KZN Midlands, and its mouth is at Durban, some distance north of Durban's natural harbour. The name is taken to mean "the ...

, Umkomazi, Tukhela and the Umfolozi. It is a common

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

species in KwaZulu-Natal Province and it lives in different habitats between the Drakensberg foothills and the coastal lowlands.

References

External links

Water Services Planning Reference Framework – Water Resource Perspectives
KwaZulu-Natal South Coast Rivers of KwaZulu-Natal Internal borders of South Africa {{SouthAfrica-river-stub

Course

Ecology

See also

References

External links