River
Caledon River
480 km from source to mouth · South Africa and Lesotho.
South Africa and LesothoFlows into Orange River9th longest in South Africa
In numbers
Length
480km
Average flow
160m³/s
Basin
64,798km²
Drop
581m
from 1,841 m to 1,260 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
480 km of river and 8 stops on the way: 6 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,841 m
- 77 kmHlotse43,967 people
- 95 kmFicksburg49,420 people
- 96 kmMaputsoe61,916 people
- 118 kmPeka5,937 people
- 179 kmMabote38,047 people
- 183 kmMaseru343,541 people
- 312 kmWelbedacht Reservoir3.5 km²
- 312 kmWelbedacht Dam
- 480 kmOrange Riverat 1,260 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Lesotho and South Africa
At the mouth it carries 164 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 15 seconds. It drops from 1,841 m to 1,260 m, 1.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 64,798 km², about the size of LV. 2.4 million people live in it. Highest water: from February to March; lowest: from June to September. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 60% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- MaseruLargest city on its banks · 343,541 people
- Moshoeshoe I International Airport (MSU)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 18 km from the cityCar hire at MSU airport (Maseru)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- April and from September to DecemberThe best months to visit
Caledon River, month by month
Highest water: from February to March
Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: April and from September to December.
From about 38 m³/s in the lowest month to 350 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
Caledon River: the basin in numbers
64,798 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 2.4millionpeople live in the basin
- 37/km²people per km²
- 1,910maverage altitude of the basin
- 686mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 12.7°Caverage air temperature
- 1%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 3.1km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 2% Forest
- 9% Cropland
- 69% Pasture
- 2% 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
Caledon River: what you find on the way
- 6Weirs
- 2Waterfalls
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.3 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Caledon 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.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
11mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Welbedacht Reservoirkm 3343.5km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (11)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Ribbokkop11 km away
- Metjhatjhane2.4 km away
- Langkrans14 km away
- Generaalskop10 km away
- Dipelaneng8.5 km away
- Thabana Tshowana9.4 km away
- Thabaputswa1.3 km away
- Snow Hills12 km away
3 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
Caledon River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Orange RiverSouth Africa2,200 km800 m³/sTributaries (1)
Also: Little Caledon River
NamibiaNearby
Rivers nearby
Lesotho113 km5.9 m³/s142 km awayVaal RiverSouth Africa1,120 km120 m³/s285 km awaySenqunyane RiverLesotho200 km15 m³/s209 km awayGreat Kei RiverSouth Africa520 km67 m³/s325 km awayMalibamat'so RiverLesotho140 km36 m³/s276 km awayGreat Fish RiverSouth Africa644 km26 m³/s345 km awayGamtoos RiverSouth Africa645 km19 m³/s395 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q509983) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth 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 | Lakeyas, 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?
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