Richtersberg Campsite under water

[4x4 wannabie]

Later , the recovery of the camper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=8Tg17Amdf0s

[MartinClem]

This was Richtersberg days before. The caravan in the video was parked just to the right of where the LC in the picture is:

Attachment 601509

Water came from this direction:

Attachment 601510

not sure of location but there are a few rivers in the vicinity but not that one would notice in the dry

[Dirk]

Cleanup video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tg17Amdf0s

[Alberto]

people who has camped at DE HOOP should know the same senario ,the last stretch into DE HOOP is in a riverbed path where it opens up to the river ,we camped at the first spot when you inter the campsites ,but i think the river will pass ,but could turn .,the problem in that the river path has allways water trickling there ,man this is scary stuff .

[Dirk]

Good advert for the caravan!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxX1xIzvF8c

[Tony Weaver]

Cleanup video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tg17Amdf0s

A HiLift jack would have been useful there. As you said in the later post, good ad for the caravan!

[Dudleytheplumber]

Reality TV at its scariest....

[Estee]

Good advert for the caravan!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxX1xIzvF8c

Jeep didnt do too bad either.

[Peter1949]

Hope all ok, yup camping in dry river bed, all looks fine and nice to camp, but you don’t know what happened up stream with rain, flash floods take you out very quickly

so many hikers also get killed in those dry river canyons in the states

This is a "normal" Richtersveld official campsite alongside the river bed, not in it as such.
Near to the also popular De Hoop camping area.
I wonder how the campers there fared?
Very scary.
But going to these kind of places is not for those not prepared to take a certain degree of risk and would hopefully be accordingly insured.
The main thing is the folks were OK physically at least.
What an experience!
Hope the damages were not too bad.

[Peter1949]

This was Richtersberg days before. The caravan in the video was parked just to the right of where the LC in the picture is:

Attachment 601509

Water came from this direction:

Attachment 601510

OK, and THAT would not have been anticipated for sure.

[Estee]

OK, and THAT would not have been anticipated for sure.

Looking at the terrain Peter, I think it could be anticipated as a possibility, I think the probability (volume of rainfall) was under estimated.

But it would be easy to have a false sense of security in such a setting particularly with the total absence of water borne moraine.

No one died or was physically injured so a good outcome this time.

[Voyageur]

We camped at Richtersberg in Sep 2019. Absolutely brilliant place. One of our favourites to be sure.

I am absolutely gob smacked that a mountainous desert would receive this amount of water. I could imagine the Orange River water level rising but for water to flow from that direction is unbelievable.

This is what is on the Richtersveld website.
https://www.richtersveldnationalpark...hen_to_go.html

So 5mm in the East or 200mm in the west with the rainy season in winter and this happened in summer. I guess the lesson is to check the weather forecast for rain even if you are going to the desert

Very happy that no one was hurt and that the folks recovered their van. That jeep was very impressive

[Peter1949]

That kind of rainstorm is not usually predicted and is unexpected at that time of year.
In such a situation I could very easily have been caught out myself.

[VossaWP]

See here? Clearly broken.


C

Thats not a bank. Thats the road into the camp.

[rvdm1]

I am seriously impressed with the conqueror, it came out of there mostly unscathed. I suppose that's one of the perks of towing such a heavy trailer.

I'm glad everyone is ok, it serves as a good learning opportunity to the rest of us, definitely me. If I had camped there I wouldn't have identified the risk, I mean it is an official campsite as someone else mentioned. Looking at google earth, the campsite is set smack bang in the middle of the mouth of a dry river (tatasrivier) into the orange.

[Estee]

I am seriously impressed with the conqueror, it came out of there mostly unscathed. I suppose that's one of the perks of towing such a heavy trailer.

I'm glad everyone is ok, it serves as a good learning opportunity to the rest of us, definitely me. If I had camped there I wouldn't have identified the risk, I mean it is an official campsite as someone else mentioned. Looking at google earth, the campsite is set smack bang in the middle of the mouth of a dry river (tatasrivier) into the orange.

Indeed, ''dry'' rivers are often the easiest route into a location. A good topographical map and or Google Earth are handy references, in conjunction with such publications as the attached.

As I mentioned, the topography indicates the possibility but the probability of such a downpour was low

[MANDREAS]

Thats not a bank. Thats the road into the camp.

Look at the surrounding terrain.

That's not a road. That's a dry river bed with a road in it. The river is at its lowest point.

[RoelfleRoux]

1) Yes, the Jeep impressed.
2) The general calmness of the people impressed. If this was captured in Trump's shithole country everyone would have been screaming "Oh my G.." repeatedly, while doing nothing.
3) I'm a geologist and have a reasonable appreciation of terrain, but never thought our favourite camping spot (where the Cruiser was parked) is so dodgy.
4) Richtersberg is still my favourite camping spot, but dark clouds inland will have me a little worried next time. I hope this video won't tempt Parksboard to shut it down

[JLK]

Such water flow about 5 to 7 km/h, so it will take some time for the water to reach where you are, and that where people sometimes make the mistake not to evacuate. With longer rivers one might not even know that it rained upstream.

[VossaWP]

Look at the surrounding terrain.

That's not a road. That's a dry river bed with a road in it. The river is at its lowest point.

Yes, but this is the access road into the camp for years. Not like it burst the banks now and caused the flood.

The dry river bed comes down for km's between the mountains up to that point. The arial photo shows the size of that dry river, but one only realise the size of it when there. its 100+ meters wide in some places.

We have been camping in Rightersberg and De Hoop on a couple of occasions. Always aware of the river level rising, but never thought of what might come from behind.

Wonder how it was at De Hoop?