Up on the top of the escarpment and a relatively flat area with no cliffs or high mountains in the area and after a short walk you will find this magnificent waterfall.
It has been brought to my attention that there is an entrance fee charged during the flower season.
To be able to log this find e-mail the answers to the following questions:
Please tick the box to send along your e-mail address with your answers.
1. At the waypoint – which is a good viewspot – estimate the height of the waterfall.
2. There are two distinct layers of rock involved with the gorge - describe the two layers and why does the upper layer overhang the lower layer under the waterfall?
3. At the alternative waypoint – find the pothole – describe how this hole was formed.
4. Although this is optional – take a picture of the waterfall to show how much water was going over at the time of your visit.
Waterfalls occur where rivers flow over rocks of different density. Where the river flows over hard resistant bedrock very little erosion takes place, but when it meets softer less resistant rock erosion is increased. The force of the water over the fall can also undercut the softer underlayer and when enough of this layer has been undercut the harder top layer collapses under its own weight and the waterfall moves upstream.
Waterfall like this one fall into the Plunge waterfall type.
There are 12 generally accepted types of waterfalls, although some waterfalls can fit more than one type.
- Block - Water descends from a relatively wide stream or river.
- Cascade - Water descends a series of rock steps.
- Cataract - A large, powerful waterfall.
- Chute - A large quantity of water forced through a narrow, vertical passage.
- Fan - Water spreads horizontally as it descends while remaining in contact with bedrock.
- Frozen - Any waterfall which has some element of ice.
- Horsetail - Descending water maintains some contact with bedrock.
- Plunge - Water descends vertically, losing contact with the bedrock surface.
- Punchbowl - Water descends in a constricted form and then spreads out in a wider pool.
- Segmented - Distinctly separate flows of water form as it descends.
- Tiered - Water drops in a series of distinct steps or falls.
- Multi-step - A series of waterfalls one after another of roughly the same size each with its own sunken plunge pool.
The lower rocks in the gorge belong to the Vanrhyndorp Group, of similar age but located to the south of the Nama Group and laid down by sedimentation around 600 million years ago. It is the darker coloured rock which can clearly be seen around the waterfall, but is covered by sediment and bushes down towards the downstream side of the fall. These consist of, mostly, shale, siltstone and mudstone (fine grained rocks) with subordinate sandstone and limestone/dolomite. The fine grained rocks contain more clay minerals than sandstone and are thus not only softer but more colourful than the latter. These clay minerals are more prone to oxidation which assists in them becoming even softer and weathering more easily. This Group has also undergone significant faulting and folding which will further enhance their weathering ability. The Nama group forms arable land suitable for agriculture as the constituent rock types lend themselves to the formation of soil, through weathering.
The harder upper layer is of the Table Mountain Group a sedimentary rock. Sandy sedimentation was briefly interrupted by a period of glaciation and mud deposition. These sediments were deposited in coastal settings 400 – 450 millions of years ago when Africa was part of the supercontinent Gondwana. This is the same rock which gives the famous Table Mountain in Cape Town its distinctive shape. The beds have been thoroughly lithified by processes associated with deep burial, compaction and cementation. It is an interesting fact that if it were not for the Table Mountain Group with it thick quartz-rich sandstones, we would not have had any Cape Ranges, at least not on their present scale. The sandstones are often very pure and these quartz-rich rocks are extremely resistance to weathering, being chemically relatively inert. Because of their inertness to weathering the Table Mountain Group tends to occupy the high ground in landscapes which nature is constantly trying to reduce to sea level. What erosion we occasionally observe, is usually of a mechanical nature, involving rock-falls, sometimes triggered by earthquakes. It is probable that this is the dominant mechanism operating to reduce the relief of the Cape Mountains. Water weathering has also taken place as in the case of this waterfall.
There is also a waypoint for the smaller fall above the main fall which gets you close to the Table Mountain sandstone – this also has some very soft layers which have been eroded by water.
Can you spot the pothole - an almost perfectly rounded hole in the sandstone in the horizontal rock platform?
Additional information kindly supplied by Mr D Stewart and reference from The geology of South Africa, Edited by MR Johnson, CR Anhaeusser and RJ Thomas published by the Geological Society of South Africa and the Council for Geoscience, 2006.
To be able to log this find e-mail the answers to the following questions:
Please tick the box to send along your e-mail address with your answers.
1. At the waypoint – which is a good viewspot – estimate the height of the waterfall.
2. There are two distinct layers of rock involved with the gorge - describe the two layers and why does the upper layer overhang the lower layer under the waterfall?
3. At the alternative waypoint – find the pothole – describe how this hole was formed.
4. Although this is optional – take a picture of the waterfall to show how much water was going over at the time of your visit.
