Hello, this is about #monthlytopic of August and I am tagging @HiroyukiTakisawa . This is about my local river which is located here in South Africa at my home land, Mpumalanga province meaning the province of the rising sun, with suburb name: Malelane and municipality name: Nkomazi which is referred to Komati as the name of the river. This area is located near the boarder of Eswatini and Mozambique(Maputo)
See photos from Google map and Street View
In this province during summer it is known to be too hot in temperature which can range from 25 to 40 degrees Celsius. This is one of the contributing factors to high rate of malaria and the lakes closer to where people lives. It happened that as a young kid when I was young we used to go to the river to swim almost every day, and even if is raining we could not control our selves as this turned to be an addiction to us. We would dodge our parents and go to the river to swim, swimming became one of my favorite sport, even though we did not have swimming pools during that time but this is where we thought our selves, diving deep down to the bottom of the river with our eyes opened seeing all kinds of fishes. This was dangerous as sometimes we could get cut by broken glasses or sometimes fall on the rocks and break teeth. As we grow up we ended going there as children, up until today I am scared to swim to any river, thinking of crocodiles, mermaids and other dangerous animals. During that time I was not afraid of anything, even a crocodile it self.
Beside all the bad memories I had here as a kid, we used to fish using nets and other methods. It was illegal to fish here without legal papers, if found fishing you could be jailed or required to produce papers. Our fishing was illegal but luckily we were not found fishing. People come here to wash their cars, especially taxes on weekends. There were no shops around during that time you were required to go to Tonga View to buy something to eat the nearest shops, the mall you see here was not here during that time, this is how the place before the mall looked like, I hope Google map and Street view update the street view photos for this place as this what you see is the old photo for the place Before the mall.
I hope you enjoyed the story and my dangerous games of playing at the rivers. That was long time ago, now I am a responsible person.
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Hi, @Raphael-Mahumane
Thank you for introducing this interesting story about your neighborhood river.
Your helpful links are nice!
Swimming in a river is a great memory for us. Of course, I’ve done it too.
In your area, are the children still playing the same game as you? In my area, no one does it now. The depth of a river became shallow. And children love video games. This is a bit sad but it can’t be helped.
I am also a responsible person NOW;-)
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Hi @HiroyukiTakisawa yes, they still go there for a swim but in a different way as you mentioned that because of technology they just want to play video games and be on the internet which social media. The only reason that takes them to the river is the weather, when is too hot, is either you go to a private swimming pool where you have to pay for entrance fee or got to the river.
The river gets shallow when the rain stops raining for a while, but once it start raining the water turn red in color and become full. you can see how the water looks like from the 360 photo, that is what it becomes during raining seasons…
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@Raphael-Mahumane
I see. It sounds nice! Swimming in a river is a bit dangerous but so fun. I hope they know it and escape well from the heat.
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Yes and thank you for the monthly topic @HiroyukiTakisawa I never thought I will share this information to anyone especially here.
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@Raphael-Mahumane
You are welcome:-) Stay tuned for the next topic as well!
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@Raphael-Mahumane Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I agree that all children is not afraid of anything. They just enjoy themselves and have fun. BTW, in that River, is there any mermaid? 
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No @Ant_Bad_Yogi it was just some stories we heard off from the elders.
@HiroyukiTakisawa I will be waiting, thanks.
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Hey @Raphael-Mahumane ,
Thanks for sharing! I’ve never been to the Komati river, but I do love the Mpumalanga province. It is a beautiful part of our country. Reminds me of the good old days.
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@AlexaAC do you still visit South Africa or you just gone forever?
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@Raphael-Mahumane , I’m not able to stay away!
I visit once or twice a year and one of my favourite spots are anywhere in the Western Cape.
Amazing nature, beautiful landscapes, the ocean, good food, wine and great company. I’m sure you know what I mean.
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Yes @AlexaAC I see what you are talking about.
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Hi @Raphael-Mahumane thank you for this beautiful post the way you have written and explored. I really love this place. I have visited this river side and around this other places too.
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That’s good @Safdarrai and this is the greenest place you can find locally.
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