River
Gamtoos River
645 km from source to mouth · South Africa.
South AfricaFlows into Indian Ocean4th longest in South Africa
In numbers
Length
645km
Average flow
19m³/s
Basin
34,635km²
Drop
1,290m
from 1,292 m to 2 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
645 km of river and 5 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,292 m
- 407 kmSteytlerville4,812 people
- 551 kmGroot Rivertributary
- 551 kmKouga Rivertributary
- 577 kmPatensie6,304 people
- 595 kmHankey14,091 people
- 645 kmIndian Oceanat 2 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
At the mouth it carries 19 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 134 seconds. It drops from 1,292 m to 2 m, 2.0 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 34,635 km², about the size of MD. 86,000 people live in it. Highest water: from March to May. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (38% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- HankeyLargest city on its banks · 14,091 people
- Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport (PLZ)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 70 km from the cityCar hire at PLZ airport (Gqeberha)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From December to January, April and from September to OctoberThe best months to visit
Gamtoos River, month by month
Highest water: from March to May
Best months to visit: from December to January, April and from September to October.
From about 9.7 m³/s in the lowest month to 30 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
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The basin
Gamtoos River: the basin in numbers
34,799 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 86,000people live in the basin
- 2/km²people per km²
- 935maverage altitude of the basin
- 360mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 15.8°Caverage air temperature
- 5%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 0.2km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 11% Forest
- 6% Cropland
- 80% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Gamtoos River: what you find on the way
- 16Weirs
- 1Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Gamtoos River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
9mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Mountains at the source (9)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Spitskop10 km away
- Skuinskop15 km away
- Langberg8.6 km away
- Grasberg13 km away
- Beeskop11 km away
- Tafelkop12 km away
- Taaiboskop6.5 km away
- Taaibosberg3.3 km away
1 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Gamtoos River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (2)
Also: Groot River, Kouga River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
LesothoWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q3312383) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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