A birds perspective

I always throught we'd one day take a motorbike trip to Katse Dam. I was surprised on my birthday with a flip in a Beechcraft Baron which has given me a better perspective of this beautiful slice of Eastern Free-state and over the border into mountainous Lesotho

Bethlehem runway. Incidentally, the name 'Bethlehem' originates from 'Beit Lechem', Hebrew for house of bread. Quite fitting for our bread basket province

We take off into the chilly winter morning, perform a loop over the town before heading south towards Clarens

An aerial view of our suburb and our greenroofed house, just behind and to the right the 3 windowed double storey

Lake Athlone forms the boundry of the suburb with the Witteberg mountains in the distance

The bird sanctuary borders the southern edge of Lake Athlone and stretches to the Fouriesburg road (and beyond) on the right

The Rooiberg mountains in the background

Spring, summer, autumn or winter, the shades of this landscape are ever appealing

Interestingly the Ash River was just a trickle until the Lesotho Highlands Project was complete. Now white water rafting on the Ash has grade 3 and 4 rapids and runs 365 days a year

The vibrant town of Clarens looks so peaceful from above

Turbulance in a small aircraft is not for the faint hearted but all is forgotten as the magestic vista presents itself

Pockets of snow on the Malutis

Our first sighting of Katse

Some interesting facts: The dam is 2005m above sea level which makes it the highest in Africa

Thousands of Rainbow trout are reared in the dam

The Katse provides 72 megawatts of electricity for Lesotho (before the project they were totally reliant on South Africa for their electricity)

Interesting structures on the mountaintop, I wonder how old they are....

Flying close to the mountianside, more snow is evident

The Katse is Africa's second largest double-curvature arch dam

Katse is the transfer reservoir for the whole Lesotho Highlands Water Project. All the water captured by the different structures are connected to Katse by tunnels and flow to South Africa spilling out at the Ash River outfall where 18 cubic meters of water is released every second

The wall is 185m high (the highest in africa and 50% higher than Kariba), 60m wide at the base, 9m wide at top and curves from side to side as well as top to bottom making it 1 of only 30 double-curved concrete arch dam walls in the world

and holds a capacity of 2 billion cubic metres

Total length of the tunnels to South Africa is 82km

"Come fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!"

My adventurous spirit yearns to tackle this road!

And back over the border into the Free-State

Destiny Castle, built on a mountain top near Fouriesburg is a mysterious jewel of the Eastern Free-State

The village of Fouriesburg is ideally situated near Lesotho's Caledonspoort border post

A beautiful farming valley surrounded by stately ranges

Wolhunterskop Nature Reserve, our favourate cycling destination

Sol Plaatjies Dam is located at the confluence of the Ash and Liebenbergsvlei Rivers, east of Bethlehem. From here the water flows into the Wilge and Vaal rivers before filling the Vaal Dam. The Vaal eventually joins the Orange River in the Northern Province and Lesotho waters once again travel to the Atlantic, quite a detour (these two rivers run 33320km across SA)

Katse dam was one of the biggest civil engineering endeavours in the world. Its mind boggling. What a exceptional jaunt, seeing the magniture of this project with eagle eyes and experiencing the beauty of the landscape from above

"The Free State landscape gladdens my heart, no matter what my mood. When I am here, I feel that nothing can shut me in, that my thoughts can roam as far as the horizons"

Nelson Mandela