Today, I want to share photos taken before leaving the Cumberland Nature Reserve during our recent visit.
As mentioned in various posts over the last couple of weeks, the Cumberland Nature Reserve is just outside of Pietermaritzburg, about an hour's drive west of Durban, on the east coast of South Africa.
Various trails start just above the small waterfall in the Riet Spruit. In my first photo, I took a last peek at the Riet Spruit coming from higher ground, just before tumbling down into the gorge.
With the route we chose, the walk starts above the waterfall, with the waterfall right below us as we start moving away.
But then we started walking away and if you didn't know there was a waterfall nearby, one would never guess so either...
We also found this reminder that nature can be harsh...
Although we moved away from the small waterfall, we remained close to the gorge (to our left). We enjoyed the most spectacular views along the way.
I walked up closer to the gorge for a moment and found a nice view of the waterfall from here, looking back to where we came from.
The trail then passed over a hard, rocky area for a while...
Along the way, I stopped to admire the colorful surroundings in more detail.
It is still very dry due to the past winter season, and the surroundings were mainly brown. But these plants are tough and suited to grow in a dry climate, so they remain colorful regardless of the dry season.
We spent about an hour, leisurely following the trail and then decided to return to the waterfall again.
Before we reached the waterfall again, we could hear the waterfall as we got closer. I moved closer to the gorge and I'll end this post with this view of the waterfall through the bushes.
And that's it for today, folks.
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