Page 15 - • IFV 10 2020.indd

Nature

A DAy Out At

Rietvlei NAtuRe ReseRve

BY JAMES CLARKE, PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARY BROADLEY

he idea was to spend a Sunday entire region was buried for millions of early 1930s) by otherwise out-of-work
morning birding at Rietvlei Nature years a kilometre deep under the Karoo men who were fed and paid 4 shillings
TReserve to the southeast of System. This protective layer has eroded a month. Soil was carted away by mule
Pretoria. I’d been there before, but long away revealing the mountain chain along carts. Feeding the dam is the Sesmyl (Six
ago. But it had never before occurred to whose crest there are scattered slabs of Mile) Spruit, along with some fountains
me what a splendid place Rietvlei is to an extremely ancient fossilised shore line and boreholes. Upstream from Rietvlei
take visitors - especially overseas visitors still with ripple marks of the last outgoing Dam is the Marais Dam which acts as a
who’d like to see some wildlife. tide. Nothing lived on the landward side silt trap for Rietvlei Dam and is also rich
If you’ve ever wondered what that rare because the earth’s atmosphere was in waterfowl.
veld type known as the Bankenveld was unbreathable. The reserve can support up to
like, Rietvlei is an example. Bankenveld The 3 400ha Rietvlei Nature Reserve 2 000 head of game. We saw zebra,
is a hummocky landform unique to surrounds the Rietvlei Dam that supplies eland, blesbok, red hartebeest, black
the Gauteng/North West region. It Pretoria with 15% of its water. When wildebeest, waterbuck and, at a lower
comprises parallel ridges of incredibly we were there – it was a Sunday – its dam, hippo and an otter. There’s also
ancient mountain ridges following the western shore was bristling with fishing white rhino, springbok, common
west-east line of the Magaliesberg. rods. There were herons, cormorants, reedbuck (this antelope, despite its
Incredibly ancient? The Magaliesberg is darters, grey-headed gulls, ducks, coots, label, it is no longer common in South
2 000-million years old, one of the oldest dabchicks and geese. Africa now that half our wetlands have
ranges in the world. The dam was built during the Great disappeared), mountain reedbuck,
Why didn’t it erode away? Because the Depression (from about 1929 to the steenbok, grey duiker and oribi.

14 • Issue 10 2020 • The Villager