It is not every day that you can walk underneath two waterfalls in such close proximity. We were at two beautiful waterfalls in less than a few hours. Sabie, in Mpumalanga South Africa, features countless waterfalls, way too many to count. I was in Sabie two or three times in the last couple of years, and we did not visit all of the falls. We tried to, but we could not visit them all!
This time round, we visited the Forest falls and the Maria Shires Falls, two stunning waterfalls in the heart of Sabie.
So, please join me on this virtual tour as I take you with our travels!
Forest Falls
As you stand at the foot of the Forest Falls, you feel the weight of the situation. Your hair rises as the water falls, your ego shrinks and you become one with what transpires in front of you.
It is a very short hike to the forest falls, or a short ride. It is one of those magical places where the world stands still, and you cannot fathom the beauty that happens in front of you.
Sound is cancelled out as the falls deafens any other noise. The beauty of the falls transcends our earthy worries. The massive amounts of water falling in front of your eyes are eye-opening. You feel small in front of nature's majesty.
Around you, there are signs of the "forest" in the name, but these are mostly artificial man-made forests. Few ancient forests have survived the onslaught of human and capitalist gains. Mostly pine and bluegum forests outstrip the ancient forests that used to cover these areas. Sometimes when you listen you can hear the calls of a thousand insects. But the silence beyond that is shocking.
But the idea and memories are not far from these falls.
The water looked so inviting. I took off my shoes and I soaked my feet in the water. I could feel my body going limb, enjoying the short break from life, from worries, from being human. Now, I merely existed...
Nature in her beauty treated our vision, our perception of her, with the most beautiful plants. But even though the beauty was beyond our imagination, beyond anything that we could fathom with our small minds, we humans could not wait to leave our mark. It saddens me to see how many pieces of trash remains after everyone left...
In the end, we could not stay there, we had to move on towards the next fall, not too far from where we were. But for the moment, we enjoyed the last bits of beauty that nature offered us.
Maria Shires Falls
Just a short walk over the road and between some of the remnants of the old forests, you arrive at the Maria Shires falls. They are not as spectacular in size as the forest falls, but they carry some significance and weight. They are burial sights for some people, or so I guess from the sign on them ("Grafte/Graves"). We did not have a tour guide, so I am not sure which graves they were...
As you enter these falls, there is a different presence. Where the forest falls were majestic and grandeur, these falls were quiet and small. There was a feeling of repression, a holding back, something that seemed darker in force than the previous one. It was ominous. But, it was beautiful, magical, and out of this world. It felt like the movies.
As we looked up, we saw the small canopy, the tall pine trees (which I think are not native), spoke to us in languages we did not understand. Ancient words flowed from the very soil we stood on. We were taken back into the past; but it was only momentary, as we were already back in the car, driving away from this beautiful magic of a place.
Postscriptum, or So we Arrive and Depart
We are always in a hurry to arrive and depart, it is merely part of life. We always move, we never stay. Life is an event, and we are merely transient, monad, temporary.
I hope you enjoyed these sightings of beautiful waterfalls in Sabie. Thank you so much for travelling with me.
For now, happy travels, and keep safe.
All of the musings and writings are my own, albeit inspired by nature. The photographs and videos are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300 or Nikon D3200.