 |
| indiginous old growth forest in the Cape |
 |
| forest floor |
 |
| mountain fynbos at its best! |
Raquel is a doll. She and I aren’t the best suited partners for hiking together: she likes to go up (the mountain) and go up quickly; I, on the other hand, don’t like to go up and certainly I don’t like to go up quickly! As I’ve gotten older, I’ve left behind the “power hiking” and tend to rather plod along and take pictures of anything interesting I see. And, well, since I’m in the Floral Cape Kingdom, I tend to see quite a lot of what is interesting to me and find myself wanting to stop very often. However, I tried to squelch my impulse to photograph something at every pace and Raquel was very patient with me. We had a wonderful time and I enjoyed protea bushes/trees instead of Christmas trees! And the protea come with their very own ornaments! Although I missed my family dreadfully, it was a nice trade—tree wise, at least.
The forest was amazing and we climbed high to see it. At one point, we had a lovely view of Kalk Bay. Actually, we were high enough, and in the middle of the peninsula enough, that we could see both seas of the False Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Lovely! But the forest was magnificent and full of old, gnarled, ancient trees: Real Yellowwood, Assegai, and Cape Beech, and all growing around (or through!) giant boulders. It was damp, lush and green like many of our old-growth forests back home. Walking underneath the canopy made me long for home.
I’m posting more photos of flowers of the mountain fynbos. These should be better since I’ve finally figured out how to use my macro lens! Eish!
The public link to my Facebook page (you need not be a Facebook member to see these photos) is:
Merry Christmas from Silvermine Valley!
Soon,
Karen
 |
| more forest |
 |
| wild geranium growing through, on top of, or around a boulder |
No comments:
Post a Comment