April 18, 2016

KwaZulu-Natal Holiday: Howick Falls

Posted by Evelyn Mervine

HowickFalls1

Howick Falls #1.

Over the next two or three weeks I’ll be sharing some pictures from my recent week-long holiday in March to the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. A week is not nearly enough time to fully explore this beautiful part of the world. However, my husband and I managed to see a fair amount! We took a flight from Cape Town (our home city) to Durban and then we drove through to the lovely little town of Hilton, where we stayed with friends for three nights. From Hilton we explored a beautiful part of the country known as The Midlands. Then we drove to the town of Underberg in the Drakensberg, which is Afrikaans for “Dragon Mountains”. On our way to Underberg we took a detour to Kamberg to see some rock art. We spent four nights in Underberg, and one day we went on a day trip up Sani Pass to spend a few hours in the Kingdom of Lesotho.

To start off the KwaZulu-Natal holiday blogging, today I’m sharing pictures from our visit to Howick Falls, an impressive waterfall located a short drive away from Hilton. Howick Falls is a 95 m tall waterfall on the Umgeni River. The falls cascade over a cliff composed of dolerite that intruded into Ecca Group sedimentary rocks. Both the dolerite and the Ecca Group rocks are Karoo Supergroup rocks. At the falls, a layer of Ecca shale can be seen sandwiched between sills of dolerite, and there’s also a dolerite dyke.

Let’s take a closer look at part of the cliff:

Howick Falls #2.

Howick Falls #2.

It’s a little difficult to see the boundaries between the dolerite sills and the Ecca shale, but they’re there.

Do you see the dolerite dyke? If not, let me point it out to you:

Howick Falls #3.

Howick Falls #3.

Here’s a closer look at the upper dolerite sill:

Howick Falls #4.

Howick Falls #4.

Here are two more pictures pictures of the falls:

Howick Falls #5.

Howick Falls #5.

Howick Falls #6.

Howick Falls #6.

Do you see the Ecca shale layer in the above picture? Here are the rough boundaries:

Howick Falls #

Howick Falls #7.

As I mentioned, it’s a little difficult to pick out the boundaries from these pictures, but there’s definitely a shale layer in there!

Here are some pictures of an informational sign at the falls:

Howick Falls #8. The sign says sandstone but note that the Ecca consists of both shale and sandstone. My one geology book says that a shale-rich Ecca layer is located at Howick Falls.

Howick Falls #8. The sign says sandstone but note that the Ecca Group consists of both shale and sandstone. My one geology book says that a shale-rich Ecca layer is located at Howick Falls. Click to enlarge.

Howick Falls #9. A close-up of the geological diagram on the informational sign.

Howick Falls #9. A close-up of the geological diagram on the informational sign.

There’s a neat signpost at the falls showing the directions and distances to other famous waterfalls:

Howick Falls #10.

Howick Falls #10.

Howick Falls #11.

Howick Falls #11.

Last but not least, here are some pictures of the beautiful river valley below the falls:

Howick Falls #12.

Howick Falls #12.

Howick Falls #13.

Howick Falls #13.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more KwaZulu-Natal adventures here on Georneys!