Low level bridges

Of course, this point was unlikely to have occurred to drivers who, because of floodwater, were unable to cross for a few days each year. Many would have cursed the designers of such bridges who had failed to make them higher.  They would not have appreciated that for the whole year bar a few days, the bridge provided for them a more or less trouble free means of getting across the sand. Most of these bridges, perhaps all, were narrow and had no guardrails as can be seen in this photo. Most have now disappeared but some idea of what they were like can still be experienced at Platjan.

When the Shashe River was in flood, there was no way that anyone could make it across. The situation at Morwa was somewhat different because the relatively short low-level bridge there was crossing the Metsemotlhaba, a sand-less river. It was there that Col. Rey was held up on more than one occasion. Other drivers, however, didn’t wait for the river to subside.