Keurbooms River - Plettenberg Bay
Garden Route- South Africa

Lookout Beach Plettenberg Bay with the mouth of the river in the background

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Visit to the Keurbooms river

Plettenberg Bay is situated on the south coast of SA about 600 kilometres from Cape Town. Its a very beautiful part of SA and has much going for it. The town is built on a peninsula between two rivers, the Keurbooms River to the east and the Piesangs River to the west.

The Keurbooms river is the larger of the two and is navigable for small boats for about five or six kilometres upriver from the mouth.The upper part of the river runs through a valley between two mountains which are covered with forest. The trees grow all the way down to the rivers edge and form a thick canopy on both banks. On the west side of the river is a beautiful camp site which used to be known as the Keurboom's River camp site although it is now known as the Aventura Resort Plettenberg. It caters for caravanners and for tent dwellers and also has a number of bungalows and houses for hire.

The caravan park boasts 110 stands all with power points which are beautifully situated under indigenous trees which grow in the area. There are a number of beautiful grassed sites as well on the banks of the river. The river above the bridge flows very slowly through the valley and is reasonably deep in places.

About 3 kilometres from the campsite there is a beautiful little bay with a sandy beach where boats can land and people can have a picnic lunch on the beach. The water in the bay is quite deep and a dark brown colour. There are a number of cliff faces overhanging the river and some brave folk sometimes climb them and dive into the river below.

Up river are a number of small tributeries to explore but game rangers have blocked them with rocks to keep boats out of the shallower areas.

In the afternoons when the sun moves behind the rocky banks of the river to the west shadows fall over the river and the water becomes like a mirror.It is then that one can hear the baboons. Their screams echo through the valley and it sounds as if somebody is being murdered. Its quite scary to listen to and I envision them attacking me and sinking their fangs into my flesh and ripping me apart. Of course its just imagination as the wild baboons normally scatter when they seem a human.

In the trees on the banks of the river you can often hear the call of the Knysna Loerie. A very pretty but shy bird that lives in the area. They often visit the campsite where you can see them in the trees above your caravan.

There are many other birds in the area including fish eagles which you can hear calling to one another.

The vervet monkeys also pay you a visit sometimes in the campsite.

In front of the campsite the river is quite wide and one can sail and swim there. Below the campsite the N2 highway crosses the river by means of a large road bridge and under it are a number of sandbanks and a deep channel which one has to follow to get under the bridge to the lower part of the river. Fishing under the road bridge can be quite good in the summer months when Cob and Steenbras are caught. There are a few prawn banks near the bridge where the steenbras feed during the late afternoon.

The lower part of the Keurbooms river is far more interesting than the upper reaches.As one follows the channel under the N2 road bridge one has two options. The river and deeper channel moves around to the east and down the eastern side of Ludd's Island which is situated in the middle of the river about a 100 metres from the bridge. Ludd's island is privately owned and has its own airfield and holiday accommodation where guests can stay for a couple of days in luxury.

To the west of the island is a shallow channel where small flat bottom boats can venture.

Although the whole river is tidal and open to the sea the salt water does not penetrate too far up stream from the bridge. The river on the southern side of the bridge has a number of sandbanks which are dry when the tide is out. They also form part of the prawn beds which are found in the river.

The east and west channels runs around Ludd's Island and meet up at the bottom end of the island where the Bitou River enters the Keurbooms river. Where the two rivers meet is a large mud estuary where there are thousands of mud crabs, prawns and other salt water creatures tobe found. Fishing in the channel where the two rivers meet is normally quite good when the tide is up.

On the eastern bank of the river a number of caravan parks and holiday acommodation facilities have been built. People can sit on the lawns and fish in the river. A really idyllic situation.

The river flows quite fast in this area when the tide is ebbing and just as fast in the other direction when the tide is rising. Its quite amazing to sit in your boat as the tides turn. One minute your line is being dragged downstream and about 15 minutes late its going upstream. It would be lovely if it was a fish on the end of it.

The river and its banks become very interesting below the coming together of the two rivers. Instead of flowing south as it has been for most of its length the river turns west and flows parallel to the coast for about a kilometre before it turns south and enters the sea. The sea and the river are divided by sand dunes along this stretch of the river.

A report in a local newspaper has done a study of the river mouth and it appears that the is mouth is moving westwards along the coast towards Plettenberg bay.

At present on the western side of the mouth is a shallow lagoon which is divided from the sea by sand dunes covered in bush. These dunes are being eroded by the sea and river and at the pace that it is happening the mouth will soon have moved to the base of the cliffs on the eastern side of Plettenberg Bay. The sand from the bank that is being eroded from the western bank gets deposited on the eastern bank. If the mouth should move to the base of the Plettenberg Bay Peninsula, Lookout Beach will disappear.

Not only will the beach disappear but a large parking area and a couple of houses built on the flood plain will be flooded. Some of the houses built on the lower slopes of the Plettenberg Bay peninsula will also be threatened. The authorities are in a quandary as to what they should do.

They have a number of options but are not sure what effect they will have on the river if they were to be implemented. It appears that they are going to take the wait and see option. What worries people most is that the river every one hundred years or so has a major flood. If this should happen after they have tampered with the course of the river what effect will such a flood have on the surrounding areas.

Since writing this article in 2005 there has been a large flood in 2007 and the mouth of the river has moved westwards as was predicted earlier. The beach at Lookout has all but disappeared and the sandbank on the eastern side has moved closer to the Plettenberg bay peninsula.