South Africa 
In numbers.
65m
Height
Dec–Mar
Best months
1,219m
Elevation
The water at Mac-Mac Falls, month by month
It roars from December to February.
The fullest months: from December to February. The thinnest: from May to October.
- 100%Jan
- 86%Feb
- 69%Mar
- 43%Apr
- 16%May
- 5%Jun
- 2%Jul
- 1%Aug
- 4%Sep
- 20%Oct
- 49%Nov
- 78%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from December to March.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall in Mpumalanga, South Africa
Mac-Mac Falls is a waterfall in South Africa. The water falls 65 m.
Getting there.
- Graskopnearest town · 8.1 km in a straight line
- Parking 420 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (MQP)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 52 km in a straight lineCar hire at MQP airport (Mbombela)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From December to Marchbest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
How big is it?
How big it really is.
Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
Seen from the sky.
8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.
Around the falls the river drops 112 m in 3.5 km. Here the river runs about 24 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 2viewpointsMac-mac pools, Mac-Mac Falls
- 4waymarked walking routesSecretary Bird Day Trail, Fanie Botha Hiking Trail and 2 more
- 3car parks
- —swimming spots
- 22picnic sites
- 1toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 2other named waterfalls within 4 kmForrest Falls, Forest Falls
- —caves
- —campsites
- 8hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmPanorama restcamp, Graskop Hut, Mac Mac Hut and 5 more
- —restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Graskop8.1 km in a straight line
- Sabie12 km in a straight line
- Pilgrim’s Rest12 km in a straight line
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 27 | 27 | 26 | 24 | 22 | 20 | 20 | 23 | 26 | 27 | 27 | 27 |
| Night °C | 15 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 15 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 160 | 116 | 100 | 58 | 14 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 23 | 63 | 110 | 142 |
| Wet days | 21 | 18 | 16 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 14 | 19 | 22 |
| Sun h/day | 8.0 | 8.0 | 7.9 | 7.5 | 8.7 | 8.5 | 8.8 | 8.9 | 8.8 | 7.9 | 7.7 | 7.6 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,219 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
Photos
Through visitors' eyes.
Recent years
Wet years and dry years
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 117% | 225% | 127% | 173% | 18% | 111% | 142% | 69% | 69% | 132% | 59% | 130% |
| 2021 | 152% | 245% | 60% | 30% | 91% | 204% | 77% | 97% | 64% | 101% | 109% | 134% |
| 2022 | 160% | 92% | 146% | 219% | 584% | 400% | 188% | 38% | 45% | 43% | 134% | 110% |
| 2023 | 68% | 400% | 48% | 53% | 892% | 78% | 299% | 56% | 197% | 102% | 81% | 213% |
| 2024 | 105% | 65% | 150% | 198% | 40% | 174% | 0% | 124% | 84% | 92% | 89% | 96% |
| 2025 | 173% | 141% | 116% | 155% | 40% | 81% | 84% | 34% | 158% | 135% | 215% | 162% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Mac-Mac Falls
South Africa
- 65 mHeight
- —Average flow
- Dec–MarBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q3057783) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Relief, river profile, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Paths, viewpoints, parking | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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