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I was living in Moz, and the floods got me there. I walked out with a short & t-shirt, and saw a lot of people die. It was rough, very bad.

Phew Jen, all that water just came down and wiped everything out.

I just hope that the new Croc bridge will withstand such an onslaught by nature.

My husband standing on the edge of the bridge... the water was rising as we stood there!



The flooded petrol station in Mica. (Small town near Phalaborwa gate)



View of the Letaba river from the front of the restaurant. This was taken a day later when we finally got back to Letaba camp. You can see the fence in the right hand corner!




The Olifants river taken 2 days later.

My sincere thanks to all have responded to this thread.
Special thanks must go to Jen for her detailed account and photos.
I just cannot believe the Letaba Bridge and Letaba Camp pics.
Please other forumites , if you have a tale to tell or pics to share lets read or see them.

In Feb/March 2000 was the first time Kariba opened the flood gates since it was built in the '60 besides to test! All that water poured into Mozambique and they were flooded.
Unfortunately people had built their homes on the flood plains downstream (as they had never been flooded in 40 years) and the villages were washed away..

Remember the woman that birth in a tree and the SAAF helicopters were the ONLY rescue method to help them. Those crews were fantastic working virtually around the clock airlifting people out of the water

At the old Nelspruit airport we set up an air bridge to fly supplies to Moz.
This was a 24 hour operation and we lost a few aircraft during the aid lift, not lost but damaged on the ground due to runway wash away and soft ground.

Can you believe it, the bulk of the supplies that was flown in was water....fresh drinking water.

Will never forget, driving in the Levuvhu riverbed toward Crooks.
First time there and first time back in Kruger in a borrowed car ie;
Honda ballade(low level).
We had just passed under a fever tree, which boasted a flip flop
( SA sandal) dangling from a branch, when a screeching sound
started, in the left back wheel.
There were monitors basking in the sun on fallen trees and it
presented a almost eerie situation.
Will never forget.

Amazing stuff and thanks for the pics.
I recall being told how some animals seemed to know what was about to happen a day or two in advance.
I think there were reports of crocs walking on some tar roads, presumably to get to higher ground before the flood water arrived.
Does anyone have any sightings or reports to confirm this ?

Hey Bushwalker...I heard this too!
I do know that some animals came short though, not least a poor lioness who swam across the raging Letaba River and reached the other side (amazing feat) which was Letaba Camp. She ended up in the camp and had to be shot as she was posing a real threat to guests and couldn't be chased out.

I also heard that , and that he then became the first animal in the new trans-frontier park

More reading here.

Interesting article here.

Another here.

Some pics.

Thanks for those links DB


lets hope it is not too badly damaged!

Maybe not from Lower Sabie, but it was perfectly accessible from Tshokwane / Orpen Dam, as well as Salitjie. In other words, it was driveable for its entire length.
So were most roads from the Sabie River northwards, including the gravel ones after they had dried out after a couple of days, even if some were officially closed.

Game viewing after the floods was unsurpassed.
Almost no tourist vehicles, no speeding trucks/bakkies/taxis, and lots of animals everywhere, often right on the roads.
One could drive from Satara via Tshokwane (closed)down to the Sand River on the normally very busy H1-2, carefully weave through a pride of lions lounging on the road, only to find them in exactly the same spot when coming back 1½ later.
This particular road also completely changed character, with animal spoor, droppings, branches and other debris littering the road undisturbed.
Kruger as it ought to be.

Johan

Byamiti closed too, I think it only reopened on May or so. Talamati remained open, but they were smart enough to close all gravel roads leading there, only to then tell people to drop the chains themselves.

Johan

Remembering the 2000 floods