The Beervlei Dam, near Willowmore in the Eastern Cape is one of those ‘misunderstood’ dams.

As at 10 January 2022 the Dam was full and people were being encouraged to visit this phenomenon. The Beervlei Dam is nearly 4 hours from Gqeberha at 341 km distant so we have two accommodation recomendations for you: Royal Hotel Willowmore offering accommodation for R900 Double per night or Glenmore Farm Cottage offering accommodation for R300 Double per night.

The Beervlei Dam was completed in 1957. It was built for the purpose of flood control on the Grootrivier, especially for the sake of the farming community in the Patensie area.

In 1961 the Kariega and Salt Rivers, the feeder rivers for the Beervlei Dam came down in flood and the dam overflowed for any length of time since it is flood control dam and not for irrigation purposes.

Beervlei Dam is in the Groot River. It was established in 1957, has a capacity of 85,800,000 cubic metres, and a surface area of 23.145 square kilometres, and the dam wall is 31 m high.

Whenever the dam receives enough water, the sluices are opened to make water available for irrigation on rotation basis for users downstream.

As the Karoo soils have a high salt content, if the water is stored for a length of time, it is ‘contaminated’ with salt, making it useless for irrigation, so it is released as fast as possible in a controlled manner.

In 2001 the dam was almost at full capacity and the sluice gates were kept closed for some months. As a result the fish population increased and anglers recorded catches of Carp, Silver fish and Springers.

In recent years it has been noted that less and less water flows into this dam as a result of the construction of weirs upstream and also because the annual rainfall has dropped in the catchment area.

Beervlei Dam remains, however, a very interesting attraction. The picnic spot just below the wall remains a favourite stopping place for the passer-by.

The name does not have anything to do with the wall looking like empty beer cans. According to Bruce Eitzen from the PE history group on Facebook:

‘The Khoikhoi name Udigauga translates as antbear vlei, hence, the Dutch name.’ But why? An antbear in Afrikaans is an aardvark, not an ‘aardbeer’. Because: As Johan van Zyl explained; the colloquial Afrikaans name for a male antbear is a ‘Beer’. (Also a male porcupine). So therefore the Khoikhoi name was used, but translated into the colloquial Afrikaans name. In English the name would be Male Antbear Marsh Dam. Beervlei is much nicer!

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE

Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.

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