The Lourens River mouth is located at 34°06'5 and 18°49'E in the northeast corner of False Bay, approximately 40 km southeast of Cape Town. It rises in the Hottentots Holland Mountains, flows through the town of Somerset West and enters the ocean at the n...
The Lourens River mouth is located at 34°06'5 and 18°49'E in the northeast corner of False Bay, approximately 40 km southeast of Cape Town. It rises in the Hottentots Holland Mountains, flows through the town of Somerset West and enters the ocean at the northwest of Strand. It is the fastest flowing shortest perennial river in South Africa and has a catchment area of 92 km².
The river was known in the 17th century as the Tweederivier, as it was the second river crossed after the "Eersterivier" on the journey from the Cape Peninsula. It became the Lourens River, after corporal Lourens Visser drowned in it.
Historically, the Lourens River has been used as a source of domestic and agricultural water since the late seventeenth century, when the first white settlers established a camp on the banks of the river.
The Lourens River Bridge in Main Road was built in 1845 and is the second oldest surviving bridge in South Africa.
Through the ages the farmlands of the upper catchment have been subdivided and consolidated and at present the river rises almost entirely within the vast estates of Lourensford and Vergelegen estates. Lourensford being named because there is a shallow place (a ford) in the river that allowed the ox wagons to cross it. The name Vergelegen came because it took three days by ox-wagon to reach Willem Adriaan's farm and the meaning is 'situated far away'.
The Lourens River falls under the jurisdiction of multiple authorities and private land-owners.
The street our guest house is situated in is called Lourens Street and it often gets mistaken for Lourensford Road; the road that leads from Main Road to Lourensford and Vergelegen wine estates. The river does not run directly through our property put makes a bend before the bridge in our street.
And just to make it more difficult, in 3 km distance from our guest house, there is a Lourensrivier Road in Strand, our neighbouring town.
