River
Breede River
337 km from source to mouth · South Africa.
South AfricaFlows into Indian Ocean
In numbers
Length
337km
Average flow
57m³/s
Basin
12,384km²
Drop
583m
from 584 m to 1 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
337 km of river and 5 stops on the way: 5 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 584 m
- 20 kmPrince Alfred Hamlet8,159 people
- 32 kmCeres41,596 people
- 33 kmeNduli11,203 people
- 150 kmRobertson33,204 people
- 185 kmBonnievale10,893 people
- 337 kmIndian Oceanat 1 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in the Western Cape, South Africa
At the mouth it carries 57 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 44 seconds. It drops from 584 m to 1 m, 1.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 12,384 km², about the size of QA. 402,000 people live in it. Highest water: from July to August; lowest: from December to March. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 54% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- CeresLargest city on its banks · 41,596 people
- Cape Town International Airport (CPT)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 94 km from the cityCar hire at CPT airport (Cape Town)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water12 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From November to MarchThe best months to visit
Breede River, month by month
Highest water: from July to August
Lowest water: from December to March. Best months to visit: from November to March.
From about 10 m³/s in the lowest month to 150 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Breede River: the basin in numbers
12,511 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 402,000people live in the basin
- 32/km²people per km²
- 496maverage altitude of the basin
- 536mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 15.8°Caverage air temperature
- 26%protected areas
- 0.6%covered by lakes
- 1.0km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 20% Forest
- 27% Cropland
- 63% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Breede River: what you find on the way
- 12Weirs
- 1Waterfalls
- 9Boat ramps
- 2Ferry piers
- 1MarinasBreede River Lodge Marina
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Breede River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
2beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
13mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Beaches (2)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Kampsbaai11 km away · cove21.6°C
- Hoekvywerbaai19 km away · cove21.6°C
Mountains at the source (13)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Binne-Sanddrifpieke14 km away1,779m
- Buite-Sanddrifpieke14 km away1,360m
- Waboomberge10 km away
- Gydoberg14 km away
- Waboomberg11 km away
- Tarentaalkop3.9 km away
- Platkop5.1 km away
- Dwarsberg11 km away
5 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Breede River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (2)
Also: Buffeljags River, Dwars River
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q904992) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Coastya, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit