Sunday 9th October 2022.
Today was the day…
We walked all the way round Bell Park Dam. I think it must be asked by frequent visitors to the area, ‘can you walk around Bell Park Dam?’ The answer is yes, if the dam is low enough. Right now, the dam is super low and draining daily. There was huge damage done by the storms earlier on in the year and in order to repair the spillway, they need to lower the level of the dam so they can get earth moving machinery in to do the repair. Day and night the lower sluice gate drains water from the dam. Apparently it has another 1 meter to go. If the dam is full and the surrounding water flowing strongly, walking all the way round may be challenging – once the spillway is fixed and water flowing over that piece, it will be difficult to cross to the mountain.
With the dam low, Mike and I set off at 6:30am and walked down to the waterpark, up the jeep track and over the mountain following the cow trails.
The cow trails are the definitive paths that zig zag across the mountainside. There are various herds, all with cow minders who have dogs accompanying them.
We moved off the path when we saw them coming. Healthy herd of cattle for sure…a little video for you…heart greeting from the herdsman.
The path disappears into bushes that go way down a gorge. If the cows can do it, so can we.
The undergrowth …
The cows are so big and heavy and there is a herd of them all vying for space so they create various paths which are easily visible.
Coming out the other side and up the hill, the view was spectacular…
You can see how much of the dam has been drained…
This is right at the end of the dam.
We still needed to walk onwards as the descent path was still ahead…
Rounding the bend, we got to a village. I think it is from here that a number of herds are driven.
We spoke to a youngster who told us there was no bridge over the river. We also saw the path they take down the mountain. It was quite treacherous – a massive path worn away by decades of herds making their way down to pasture. Soil erosion causing huge dongas. We had to go slowly.
We had been told there was no bridge over the river, so we wondered how we would cross it. Follow that cow! They showed us the way…
The track didn’t get easier…
But the view was great…
We got to the bottom, down a donga, up the other side, along a path and we were at the easy river crossing…
After the river…an easy walk through a wide open plain…
It soon widens to a jeep track which joins the dirt road. This is looking back, so if you are walking clockwise round the dam, take this road right…
The dirt road makes for easy walking, but I can imagine after a lot of rain it would be quite muddy…
A short distance after the tree, there is a bridge. The main concrete bridge washed away during the floods. It’s been replaced by a wooden pole one…
Immediately after the bridge on the left, there is a narrow path across the field which takes you back to the water’s edge. From there we got a super view of the mountain we had just walked over. Arrows shows the path we came down.
Then it was back along the water edge to the dam wall, up the angled wall on the edge of the spillway onto the mountain again. By then we were tired and hungry. We left at 6:30am and got home at 9am. It was just under 9km. Here’s roughly the route we went – Google maps.
For the rest of the day, we chilled and recovered. We did a bit of shopping and now we are ready for the trip home tomorrow. We have had a wonderful time. Tomorrow we get in late, so I think the blog may be short.
1 Corinthians 16:14
Everything should be done in love.
The best is yet to come – we are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂