Soon after arriving back at Hlalanathi it started raining and it was Biblical. Well it certainly feels like 40 days and 40 nights.........
.......the trickle that was the Tugela became a raging torrent.......
.....................and it became a real treat to wake up and see the mountains.
It didn't do the roads any good either and the new pot holes will take years to repair.....if it ever gets done. There's a sign on the road past Sterkfontein Dam that reads Kaalvoet vrou (Barefoot woman) and Retief se klip (Retief's stone) which I eventually decided to investigate. The dirt "road" was worthy of the Dakar and it took a lot longer than expect to get to this monument which marks the top of Retief's Pass.........
.....from where he led his group of 66 wagons down into what was to become Natal, on the way to his fateful meeting with Dingaan at uMgingindlovu.
On the same site is this statue commemorating Susanna Catharina Smit, Gerrit Maritz's sister, who insisted that she would walk barefoot over the Drakensberg rather than live under British rule.
On a fine day sometime later I decided to visit Golden Gate National Park, but had to stop on the way to get a picture of this massive buttress that looms over Harrismith, 30 km away.
The park is renowned for it's towering, golden and ochre hued cliffs, and the pass in and out is a lot of fun on a bike!
On my way out, these puffs of cloud over the Maluti Mountains looked like giant smoke signals.
Going the other way takes one into a different section of the Drakensberg, dominated by Cathedral Peak on the right......................
...................and here I spotted the wet season or summer form of Gaudy Commodore, which has the most spectacular seasonal dimorphism of any butterfly on the planet. The dry season or winter form is mainly blue and they were originally thought to be two distinct species.
On the way to Royal Natal NR the side of the road was littered with these Berg lilies Galtonia candicans....
..........while the Sentinel was found to have is very own powder puff......
African monarchs were abundant, their larvae feed on members of the milkweed family and though the toxic latex of the plant does not harm them, when they emerge as adults they are slightly poisonous. This makes them highly unpalatable hence a number of other species, notably the Common diadem, have evolved to mimic the general colour scheme, to avoid predation.
On the way to Bergville, the Woodstock Dam - part of the Tugela pumped storage scheme - is currently at maximum capacity and a remarkably calm day created a mirror.
Here's what it looks like from Oliviershoek Pass.......I think someone is going to start on an Ark soon.
On the same road is this outcrop which was immediately christened the "floppy koppie"
On a quick trip to Boksburg to collect the rest of my booze stash, I thought I might try another route through Verkykerskop and Memel. Unfortunately the road soon deteriorated into an absolute nightmare so I turned around and found the other side of buttress that is near Harrismith. They actually have an annual run to the top of that lot, if anyone is interested.
There are some interesting birds in and around the campsite and include a noisy family of green wood hoopoes. They almost continuously natter to one another and bear the Zulu moniker of iNhlekabafazi, which translates as cackling women.
On just another overcast and spattering day I found this croaking cisticola looking about as hacked off with the weather as I was. This family are fully fledged LBJ's and not easy to identify, except by their calls and this one sounds really toad-like.
After taking it's picture I happened to glance down and lurking in the a ditch was this massive yellow crassula C. vaginata, with a head the size of a cauliflower.
The rain did make the Tugela falls much more visible than usual - when the clouds played ball......
......and dozens of smaller falls have also become more apparent..
There's a really nice 9-hole golf course at Hlalanathi and though I no longer play, it provides enjoyable walks. At one of the many water features, this little jewel of a malachite kingfisher stayed long enough for a portrait.
A little further on the trill of a crested barbet caught my interest. Have always thought that these birds must have been designed by a committee, they seem to have a bit of everything.
Rooting around on a fairway a sacred ibis or as a young member of a group I was guiding many years ago insisted - a scared ibis.
Another visit to Royal Natal with Titus the drone yielded this rather special view of the Amphitheatre.
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