Leydsdorp Baobab is one of the brightest memories from my trip to South Africa. This is a tree that struck me with its size so much that it is difficult for me to convey it both in words and in photographs. It is located in the province of Limpopo, not far from the abandoned town of gold miners Leydsdorp.
I have never seen such large trees, so this one was a really big surprise to me. You can climb a large staircase to the baobab, and moreover, you can go inside it along a less noticeable staircase at the bottom left in the first photo. The cavity inside is natural: with age, many baobabs form hollows inside and they do not interfere with the tree too much, despite the fact that several people could easily spend the night inside this one.
Pity, but I didn't manage to take a picture of the tree from the inside. But outside there is something to see too. The height of the Leydsdorp baobab is about 21.5m with a girth of the trunk at chest level of about 19 meters. The branches, like a large leafy tent, cover a large area around the tree and descend almost to the ground.
In this shot I somehow managed to fit the whole tree. In the lower right, in the shadow of the giant branches of the tree, you can see the figures of people — just to understand the scale. The entrance to the tree is paid, but not expensive, and there are also several picnic tables there. The Kruger National Park is about 65 km away, so you can stop by the baobab on the way to or from the park — it's definitely worth to see with your own eyes.
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Camera: OLYMPUS E-M1 Mark II
You can also see my photos in my blog LJ and in my profile on NatGeo. You can read a short interview with me here.
