It has its source in the hills of the "Grahamstown Heights" from where it flows in a south-easterly direction draining the major part of the Bathurst region, reaching the Indian Ocean through an estuary at Port Alfred.

There are also a number of smaller unnamed streams entering the river along its course.

The Kowie river is part of the Fish to Tsitsikama Water Management Area.

[1] There is a small population of the endangered Eastern Province rocky (Sandelia bainsii) in the Bloukrans River section of the Blaauwkrantz Nature Reserve.

You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.This article related to a river in South Africa is a stub.