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SA Geography
Summer in the Karoo, which occupies a large part of the western Central Plateau, can be extremely hot while the winter turns bitterly cold. In contrast, the eastern coastline is lushfull and wet. The southern coast, also known as the Garden Route, is temperate and green. With it's Mediterranean climate the Cape of Good Hope has experiences wet winters and hot, dry summers. The Cape of Good Hope is well renouned for its wind, which blows intermittently all year round, either from the south-east or the north-west and its sunny summer, when almost no rain falls.
The eastern section of the Karoo gives way to the flat landscapes of the Free State, which though still semi-arid receives somewhat more rain. The Highveld which lies north of the Vaal River is better watered with an estimated annual rainfall of 760 millimetres (30 inches). The high altitude (around 1,750 m/5,740 ft) saves the Highveld from heat extremes. Although the winters are cold, it hardly ever snows.
The Lowveld derives it's name from a drop in altitude beyond the escarpment, further north and to the east of the Highveld. Thew Tropic of Capricorn slices through the extreme north causing a rise in temprature. Another popular name associated with this area is the Busheld. Sutherland is the coldest area in the country with a midwinter temperature as low as -15 degrees Celsius. It lies in the western Roggeveld Mountains,. The hottest temperatures with the mercury hit up to 51.7 °C (125.06 °F) beats down on the Northern Cape Kalahari near Upington.
South Africa gets greeted by two great oceans, the Atlantic and Indian oceans which meet at the southwestern corner. The cold Benguela current sweeps up from the Antarctic along the Atlantic coast,providing a rich fishing ground to South African fishermen. The east coast has the north-to-south Mozambique/Agulhas current which provide its warm waters. These two currents have a major effect on the country's climate, the ready evaporation of the eastern seas providing generous rainfall while the Benguela current retains its moisture to cause desert conditions in the west.
Individual small rivers run into the sea along the coastline, but none are suitable as natural harbours. The placid coastline houses only one good natural harbour, at Saldanha Bay north of Cape Town. The lack of fresh water prevents the development of the area. Nevertheless, busy harbours now exist at Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban, and Richards Bay.
In-land South Africa shares its borders with Namibia and Botswana, touches Zimbabwe, has a longitudinal strip of border with Mozambique to the east, and curves in around Swaziland before rejoining Mozambique's southern border. Nestled in the curve of the bean-shaped Free State, is the small mountainous country of Lesotho, completely surrounded by South African territory.
The only two major rivers in South Africa is the Limpopo, a stretch of which is shared with Zimbabwe, and the Orange (with its tributary, the Vaal) which runs with a variable flow across the central landscape from east to west, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at the Namibian border.
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