Flavour of the Month - May/June 2019: Grootvlei Dam (S50)

[Klipspringer]

Grootvlei Dam is a small earthen dam between Mopani and Shingwedzi. The S50 from Mopani to Shingwedzi passes the Nshawu waterholes, the Shilowa (382m) and Shibavantsengele (482m) hills, crosses the Tropic of Capricorn, reaches the turnoff to a spectacular lookout point high up on Shibavantsengele hill. And the next stop along the S50 is Grootvlei dam.

The dam is built in the Hlamvu spruit (completed in 1967). As far as I know it's the only dam in Kruger where you can drive on the dam wall.
Grootvlei Dam is remote and great for game viewing, in particular in the dry season. A bonus is the awesome view of the beautiful Lebombo Mountains. It's a rather long drive from Shingwedzi, but you can spend hours there end enjoy the scenery.

You may see here elephants, buffalo, zebra, eland and hippo.

[Richprins]

And tsessebe!

g.jpg (90.38 KiB) Viewed 1167 times

Some pics of Grootvlei on this thread too: viewtopic.php?f=263&t=7894

[Flutterby]

Thank you Klippies!

[Lisbeth]

[Klipspringer]

You have to drive on the dam wall to see the hills of the Lembobo range. The highest hill (on the left) should be Kumba (446m) and the koppie on the right Shilowa (382m).

View from dam wall.jpg (203.96 KiB) Viewed 1163 times

This is the view on Google Map (small circle = dam).

Google Map.jpg (213.73 KiB) Viewed 1163 times

[Klipspringer]

Here is the same view from the dam wall in the green season and zoomed in

Kumba.jpg (238.49 KiB) Viewed 1163 times

Shilowa.jpg (247.31 KiB) Viewed 1163 times

[Lisbeth]

It looks beautiful with the mountains in the background

[Richprins]

This spot can really be very quiet vehicle-wise...one can become quite lonely!


Once as a student we arrived there quite late in the morning after a long isolated drive from Shing...

There was a little car parked there, apparently deserted and empty!


As we drove closer two heads popped up inside...a young couple with blood-red faces...they raced off!

[Lisbeth]

Unfortunately, I have never been there

I wanted to when I drove down from Shing but it had rained so much and with all the small rivers in the area I was afraid to be "caught" somewhere not driving a 4 x 4.

[Flutterby]

I don't think I've been there either.