In a recent baboon post, I said that I will post photos of the mountain pass.
So, without any further ado, come and feast your eyes on some mountain pass photos.
We have a small car, and I stick to the speed limit of 60Kph whenever we travel over this pass. Normally, some reckless drivers fly past us at tremendous speeds, and every now and then, an accident occurs. The pass is a link between the north and south provinces, and when a serious accident happens on the pass, it is closed down. There are by-passes, but they are many miles longer. Thankfully we have not yet been caught up in this situation, and that's why I take things slow.
Slow enough for my wife to get this baboon on the rocks.
But let me start the cross-over from the beginning. You can see the line of the pass running up on the mountainside ahead.
This was near the top of the mountain.
And then it was over and down the other side.
A lovely dam landscape was on show.
And then it was down into a big valley surrounded by another mountain range.
We travelled through the valley to our destination.
Now for something else, as we are now in our fire season, and it's very bad over here.
Fires are breaking out almost every day here now, and thousands of hectares have thus far been lost. The storm strength winds make things very difficult for the fire fighters to control the fires, especially in the inaccessible mountain areas. Across the southern cape, western cape, and eastern cape provinces fire fighters are currently busy battling to control fires. Air support with helicopters dropping tons of water down is also in action. The farmers and the locals in the various areas are also involved in fighting the fires.
Have a look at the right-hand side of the picture.
A fuller look below of the damages on the mountain side.
The two shots above are just to give you a mild idea about the fires, and I have left it to you, to go online and to search the media for more information about the fire damages over here. Let me just tell you that things are very bad in the other areas of the provinces. Then of course we also have a range of township fires where people are burnt out and are losing everything that they own. Thankfully, there are emergency services that are actively helping them. Things have certainly changed dramatically over the past seasons, and the dry veld is an ideal condition for the blazing sun to light up the fires.
But that is not the only cause, as warnings are also out to plead with people not to flick cigarette butts and throw empty glass bottles out of their car windows. There was an above average rainfall last season that resulted in extra foliage growth. This makes the fires more intense, and this year we are far below the average rainfall mark, making things very dry and possibly leading to a drought in many areas.
Such is life.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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