I live at an altitude of 1062 m. For some of you that is 3484 feet. That is pretty high. We think it is normal. Denver Colorado is touted as the Mile High City at 1609 metres, but Johannesburg is higher still, at 1753 metres – although of course there are variations in altitude across the city as I am sure there are in Denver.
The Drakensberg - 1500 m of Basaltic Lavas at elevations in excess of 3300 m
My parents lived for many years at 1463 m, which is 106 metres higher than Britain’s highest mountain. Their house lies on gently rolling, well-watered countryside, and not atop some windswept peak. 3482 metres is the highest point in Southern Africa with the subcontinent's average elevation lying at 1200 metres. The rest of the world has an average elevation of 800 m, which includes all the great mountain ranges of the world.
All of the rivers make this short sprint to the sea
It makes for spectacular scenery, which makes for, by extension, fantastic geomorphology. The Tugela River, which tumbles over a 948 m precipice to form the second highest waterfall on Earth, then sprints to the Indian Ocean over a direct distance of 270 km. That is a gradient of 1:90, vertical to horizontal, which is steep by anyone’s standards. All of the province's rivers make this short sprint to the sea. And the resulting incised, magnificent scenery is due to this rapid descent from the source to the sea in this beautiful corner of Planet Earth.
Most magnificently manifest in the Mountains of the Dragon
The African Superswell, due to the deep workings within the crust, has led to uplift of the eastern portion of the country and the formation of the Eastern Escarpment, most magnificently manifest in the Drakensberg, or the Mountains of the Dragon. The subcontinent’s drainage is asymmetrical – South Africa’s largest river, the Orange, rises almost at the same point as KwaZulu-Natal’s largest, yet has to flow 1200 km west to the Atlantic compared to the short 270 km of the Tugela.
Tumbling waterfalls, towering buttresses, incised meanders and magnificent mangrove-fringed lagoons
So where am I going with this? Only to say that right here on my door step is the most magnificent scenery – tumbling waterfalls, towering buttresses, incised meanders, magnificent mangrove-fringed lagoons, all underlain by rocks that range in age from 3 billion to 180 million years.
And with these magnificent examples of physical geography, it would be remiss of me not to share them with you.
If this resonates with you and you think it may be valuable to others, please share.
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