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River

Great Fish River

644 km from source to mouth · South Africa.

South AfricaSouth AfricaFlows into Indian Ocean5th longest in South Africa

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouth
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

644km

Average flow

26m³/s

Basin

30,366km²

Drop

1,227m

from 1,227 m to 0 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

644 km of river and 4 stops on the way: 1 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

1,227 m0 m
Sourceat 1,227 m0 km
Grassridge Reservoir6.6 km²63 km
Cradock43,936 people134 km
Tarka Rivertributary160 km
Kat Rivertributary503 km
Indian Oceanat 0 m644 km
0200400644 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 1,227 m
  2. 63 kmGrassridge Reservoir6.6 km²
  3. 134 kmCradock43,936 people
  4. 160 kmTarka Rivertributary
  5. 503 kmKat Rivertributary
  6. 644 kmIndian Oceanat 0 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

River in South Africa

At the mouth it carries 26 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 96 seconds. It drops from 1,227 m to 0 m, 1.9 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 30,366 km², about the size of LS. 230,000 people live in it. Highest water: from March to April. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (24% of a year's flow).

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • CradockLargest city on its banks · 43,936 people
  • Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport (PLZ)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 203 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)
  • January, from April to May and from September to OctoberThe best months to visit

Great Fish River, month by month

Highest water: from March to April

Best months to visit: January, from April to May and from September to October.

35
22°43 mmJan
38
22°52 mmFeb
48
21°60 mmMar
45
18°36 mmApr
35
15°25 mmMay
21
12°18 mmJun
16
12°20 mmJul
17
14°25 mmAug
21
16°30 mmSep
31
17°46 mmOct
37
20°47 mmNov
40
21°47 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 16 m³/s in the lowest month to 48 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

Car hire at PLZ airport (Gqeberha)Discover CarsSee 

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

The basin

Great Fish River: the basin in numbers

30,262 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Heavily regulatedReservoirs can hold 24% of a year's flow: dams shape its seasons.
  • 230,000people live in the basin
  • 8/km²people per km²
  • 1,074maverage altitude of the basin
  • 480mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 15.4°Caverage air temperature
  • 3%protected areas
  • 0.1%covered by lakes
  • 0.2km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 22% Forest
  • 6% Cropland
  • 82% 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

Great Fish River: what you find on the way

  • 16DamsElandsdrift Weir and 15 more
  • 39WeirsCollett'sWeir - Double Trouble, Scanlen Weir and 37 more
  • 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

Great Fish 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.

  • 1lake on its wayLakeyas
  • 3beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
  • 9mountains at the sourcePeakyas

Lakes and reservoirs (1)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Grassridge Reservoirkm 656.6km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Beaches (3)

At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya

  1. West Beach25 km away22.7°C
  2. East Beach24 km away22.7°C
  3. Rufane’s Beach21 km away22.7°C

Open Coastya ↗

Mountains at the source (9)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Tweelingkoppe15 km away
  2. Spitskop14 km away
  3. Seeppotkop14 km away
  4. Gryskop13 km away
  5. Grootberg13 km away
  6. Galgepaalkop12 km away
  7. Dassiekranskop14 km away
  8. Tafelkop10 km away

1 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Great Fish River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Great Fish River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth24 km across

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

Great Fish River in pictures

Frederick Timpson I'Ons-1820s Settlers camped on the Great Fish (Inxuba) River-0698
Frederick Timpson I'Ons · Public domain
SAR Class 12R 1505 Nelland (Great Fish River) 220481
User:Malcolm Best · CC BY-SA 3.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (3)

Also: Kat River, Tarka River, Klein-Visrivier

Nearby

Rivers nearby

Great Kei RiverSouth AfricaSouth Africa520 km67 m³/s147 km awayGamtoos RiverSouth AfricaSouth Africa645 km19 m³/s202 km awayCaledon RiverSouth AfricaSouth Africa480 km160 m³/s345 km awayMakhaleng RiverLesothoLesotho113 km5.9 m³/s383 km awaySenqunyane RiverLesothoLesotho200 km15 m³/s397 km awayGourits RiverSouth AfricaSouth Africa416 km43 m³/s494 km awayMalibamat'so RiverLesothoLesotho140 km36 m³/s462 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q1130009) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesLakeyas, Coastya, 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?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit