“You need special shoes for hiking—and a bit of a special soul as well.”
– Terri Guillemets
Little compares to walking for a few kms in the mountains looking at rock formations and finding the tiny little flowers and goggas (Afrikaans word for bugs) that visit them. There is a depth and quality to being outdoors for me that transverses space and time and it makes my soul joyful and helps my mind unravel the junk of societal living which I often find confusing, annoying and complicated.
This destination is called Gecko Creek. The closest town is Clanwilliam and it is in the Cederberg Wilderness Area - a protected area. This particular place offers tented and cabin accommodation and their facilities are very nice. I didn't take photos of the amenities as I was far more interested in looking around for wildlife and spring flowers and the area didn't disappoint me.
Clanwilliam and the Cederberg area include three main broad families of plants or vegetation types - Fynbos, Renosterveld and Succulent Karoo all of which are magnificent and distinct. Many of the endangered plant species belong to these biomes and the Renosterveld vegetation type is one of the most highly threatened habitat types in the world. The photo below is of mountain Fynbos which is dominated by Proteas, Restios and Ericas. The familiar BlueYellowGreen (TM of a fellow Hive user) colours
The region is also one of the largest producers of Rooibos tea and potatoes. Buchu also grows wild in the region and if procured fresh is a wondeful natural insect repellant with a lemon zesty tang. The flowers are cute too although too tiny to photograph well without an exceptional macro lens.
The insects of the region are plentiful, many of which can be seen buzzing around or with their heads burried in flower heads, their bums sticking up in the air.
This particular trip I took some years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to visit the local Nature Reserve or National Park alone which kinda sucked, but I understood it was from a safety perspective and obviously the nature reserves didn't want there to be liability claims if anything went horribly wrong which is always a possibility out in the South African wilds...immaterial whether you're alone or not, but your chances of surviving something nasty like a venomous snake bite or a bad fall are obviously much higher if there's someone with you that can call up help. Many of these places are also quite out there and the cell phone reception is often unreliable at best, non existant at worst.
When out in the wilds it is always adviseable to go anywhere in pairs or groups. If you tend to live on the edge like I did back then and you really need the solitude then make sure that you have as many "in case of..." items you can carry, a knife, a first aid kit and a cell phone.
Until the next one,
Stay Awesome!
x Ranger Andy out x
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