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Wonderful patterns and colours in the ‘rusting’ rocks of the Nardouw Formation*
[* these craggy sandstone mountains owe their distinctive red/brown colouration to oxidising iron contained in the rock]
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baboon spoor
Whenever I visit Cape Town I always try to make a trip to Buffels Bay – a beautiful curve of white sandy beach and luminous blue waters on the eastern coast of the Cape Peninsula. It’s one of my favourite places on this big ol’ blue planet of ours… even if some of the Chacma baboons who live there have ‘gone rogue’ and can be more than a tad aggressive (they do, no doubt, have an earlier claim to this coastline and the surrounding mountains, and I’m sure most of their bad habits have been learnt from – or forced upon them – by humans. But that doesn’t make a close encounter with a pair of 2 inch canine teeth any less worrisome!)
view across false bay, hottentots holland mountain range in the distance |
rock pool, perlemoen shell
buffels bay blue | bluebottle (portuguese man o’ war)
whale frolicking in the bay | rippled sand
beachcombing | beached jellyfish
dune daisies | treasures found
buffels bay beach (paulsberg, die boer and judas peaks in the distance) |
rock pool, pink anemone
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The western coastal belt of South Africa is a ruggedly beautiful, sometimes desolate, landscape – a semi-arid area of rocky mountains, treeless veld & windswept coastline. Yet it is home to an amazing abundance of shrubs, succulents and flowering plants that are part of the Cape Floral Kingdom. This hardy evergreen ‘fynbos’ accounts for half the species of the entire southern African subcontinent, many of those species relying on the purifying rite of summer fire to propagate and continue their existence. And in the springtime, if the preceding rains have been kind and the skies are cloudless, the dry earth-toned scrublands are transformed into a kaleidoscopic landscape of vivid colour as the many weird and wonderful plants burst into flower.
The Cederberg region is prime wildflower-viewing territory – so this is where we headed for a glimpse of this magical phenomenon. And we were not disappointed – the land surrounding Oudrif is breathtaking in its botanical beauty and diversity!
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sunrise over the doring river valley
Tucked away in a remote valley in the north of the Cederberg mountain range is Oudrif… probably one of the most peaceful, unspoilt & beautiful places I have ever had the good fortune to temporarily inhabit.
Land skirting a section of the Doring (“thorn”) River, once overgrazed by goats, has now been reclaimed by the fynbos – and the few straw-bale cottages, powered by the sun, make for minimal impact on this tranquil environment. Across the river the rocky overhangs exhibit the thousand-year-old visions of San shamans, and all around the arid veld is transformed by the many colours & textures of spring’s wildflowers.
And in the darkest dark the Milky Way arches brightly overhead, our galaxy just a smudge in amongst the infinity of stars that stud the night sky.
clanwilliam mountain dog… ready to ramble
rocky outcrop
graphic design
slow expansion
rock monster
shaman?, san rock art
sun-drenched hillside
cairn & wildflowers
punk rock!
cracked, threaded
the hunt, san rock art
late afternoon
barry – half siamese, half african wildcat, best pal of…
… bo [found as a lamb abandoned in the veld, now living in clover]
golden seedpod, late afternoon light
mafuta [zulu for "the fat one"]… exhausted after a long day’s rambling
oudrif sunset
