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River

Tugela River

520 km from source to mouth · South Africa.

South AfricaSouth AfricaFlows into Indian Ocean7th 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

520km

Average flow

170m³/s

Basin

29,100km²

Drop

1,310m

from 1,310 m to 0 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

520 km of river and 13 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

1,310 m0 m
Sourceat 1,310 m0 km
Woodstock Dam Reservoir28 km²43 km
Hart's Hill Falls160 km
Bushman's Rivertributary179 km
Buffalo Rivertributary260 km
Mooi Rivertributary283 km
Sundumbili12,455 people487 km
Indian Oceanat 0 m520 km
0200400520 km
  1. 0 kmSourceat 1,310 m
  2. 43 kmWoodstock Dam Reservoir28 km²
  3. 44 kmWoodstock Dam
  4. 53 kmDriel Barrage
  5. 89 kmSpioenkop Reservoir14 km²
  6. 90 kmSpioenkop Dam
  7. 151 kmColenso7,653 people
  8. 160 kmHart's Hill Falls
  9. 179 kmBushman's Rivertributary
  10. 260 kmBuffalo Rivertributary
  11. 283 kmMooi Rivertributary
  12. 487 kmSundumbili12,455 people
  13. 488 kmMandeni37,533 people
  14. 497 kmTugela3,572 people
  15. 520 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 170 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 15 seconds. It drops from 1,310 m to 0 m, 2.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 29,100 km², about the size of AL. 1.9 million people live in it. Highest water: from January to March; lowest: from June to September. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (44% of a year's flow).

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

Tugela River, month by month

Highest water: from January to March

Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: from April to May and from July to September.

170
23°127 mmJan
170
23°109 mmFeb
160
22°98 mmMar
110
19°52 mmApr
69
16°27 mmMay
33
13°15 mmJun
19
13°15 mmJul
20
16°25 mmAug
33
18°43 mmSep
63
20°76 mmOct
100
21°101 mmNov
140
22°120 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 19 m³/s in the lowest month to 170 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 DUR airport (Durban)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

Tugela River: the basin in numbers

29,195 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Heavily regulatedReservoirs can hold 44% of a year's flow: dams shape its seasons.
  • 1.9millionpeople live in the basin
  • 64/km²people per km²
  • 1,239maverage altitude of the basin
  • 822mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 16.5°Caverage air temperature
  • 5%protected areas
  • 0.4%covered by lakes
  • 1.1km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 44% Forest
  • 14% Cropland
  • 54% Pasture
  • 3% Towns and cities

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

Tugela River: what you find on the way

  • 31DamsWoodstock Dam, Driel Barrage and 29 more
  • 13WeirsClifford Chambers Weir, Putterill Weir, Lower Thukela Abstraction Weir and 10 more
  • 4WaterfallsFairy Glen Falls, Sunday Falls and 2 more

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.1 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Tugela 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.

  • 1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
  • 2lakes on its wayLakeyas
  • 3beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
  • 35mountains at the sourcePeakyas

Waterfalls (1)

On the river, by Cascadyas

  1. Hart's Hill Fallskm 148

Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗

Lakes and reservoirs (2)

Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas

  1. Woodstock Dam Reservoirkm 4028km²
  2. Spioenkop Reservoirkm 8214km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Beaches (3)

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

  1. Tugela Beachkm 47225.6°C
  2. Stanger Beach21 km away25.4°C
  3. Zinkwazi Beach8.5 km away25.4°C

Open Coastya ↗

Mountains at the source (35)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Mont-Aux-Sources1.0 km away3,282m
  2. Namahadi Peak5.3 km away3,274m
  3. Phofung1.0 km away3,215m
  4. Ifidi Pinacles7.4 km away3,070m
  5. Eastern Buttress5.5 km away
  6. Sentinel3.1 km away
  7. Mole Hill11 km away
  8. Mbudini Buttress12 km away

27 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Tugela River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Tugela River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth23 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

Tugela River in pictures

Tugela Falls
PhilippN · CC BY-SA 3.0
Tugela Gorge, Royal Natal National Park, Dračí Hory - Jihoafrická republika - panoramio (1)
Pavel Špindler · CC BY 3.0
Tugela Gorge, Royal Natal National Park, Dračí Hory - Jihoafrická republika - panoramio
Pavel Špindler · CC BY 3.0
Drakensberg and Tugela river
Bougnat87 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (5)

Also: Buffalo River, Bushman's River, Bloukrans River, Mooi River, Boesmansrivier

Nearby

Rivers nearby

Malibamat'so RiverLesothoLesotho140 km36 m³/s273 km awayMaputo RiverMozambiqueMozambique300 km110 m³/s340 km awayMzimene RiverEswatiniEswatini191 km51 m³/s287 km awayMbabane RiverEswatiniEswatini73 km7.4 m³/s307 km awaySenqunyane RiverLesothoLesotho200 km15 m³/s334 km awayKomati RiverMozambiqueMozambique480 km110 m³/s403 km awayLimpopo RiverMozambiqueMozambique1,750 km170 m³/s493 km awayMakhaleng RiverLesothoLesotho113 km5.9 m³/s402 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q476317) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth 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 atlasesCascadyas, Lakeyas, 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