Floods

Took a ride up Oliviershoek Pass and on to Harrismith one morning and on the return leg was impressed by the magnificent Kirkenberg beneath which Piet Retief and his party camped before venturing down the escarpment into Natal.

On another fine day Agatha and I visited Royal Natal and stopped on the approach for pictures of the the right hand end of the Amphitheatre which features the Sentinel and lower down the Thumb.

There is a pleasant walk along the river, mostly under shade which leads to.......

........the Cataracts which was as full as I've ever seen it.

But the good weather was short lived and it was soon back to rain, rain and more rain and a massively swollen Tugela River......

.......that at some stage during the night had been above this bridge by about a metre.

Things soon returned to normal and the bogie bird from my last visit came calling - literally - one fine morning and finally afforded the opportunity of some reasonable pictures of the highly attractive brubru, a small member of the shrike family.

After a month at Hlalanathi I headed back towards Durban as the Beast needed to visit the workshop again to fix what they had messed up when they serviced it last year.  Stopped over at Midmar Dam for a few days where the results of all the rain were clearly visible.

A bit further downstream the Howick Falls were similarly overburdened, which didn't deter the ladies from a nearby settlement doing their washing near the edge of the precipice.

Remembering what happened to the bakkie on one of my previous visits, I usually left it in camp when walking!  It really is a beautiful place for a constitutional.

This little yellow-breasted canary certainly thought so and was singing lustily.

A long weekend meant lots of visitors and the Cape crows were quite diligently clearing up after them.

The Beast was parked under a massive pin-wheel oak and whenever the wind blew it sounded like a war zone as the small acorns pelted down.

Nearby a plane tree had been felled but had sprouted again and the difference in size between the leaves of the heavily shaded coppice and the mature tree was quite amazing.  Glanced out my window late one night and was met with this wonderful sight.

Met up with friends who live in Howick and after a morning birding visited Karkloof Falls which were simply spectacular

So it was back to the ever-obliging Turner's and at this time of year all the tibouchinas are laden with flowers and virtually every garden in Kloof has at least one.

Hadn't been to Stainbank Reserve for some time so an early walk was undertaken and while birds were scarce the flowers made up for it.  Wild dagga Leonotis leonuris with  orange bouquets spread along thin stems.........

........and a hibiscus which is named H. cannabinis as it's leaves that resemble of the dagga plant

Was sitting enjoying the view of Kloof Gorge one day when this fellow happened along but was already past by the time I got the camera out.  He (obviously!) appeared to be either a partial albino or was just very old as he was much whiter than normal.

Then came rain of biblical proportions.  It poured down at an epic rate for two and a half days and resulted in absolute mayhem.  Over 450 confirmed deaths and they are still looking for missing bodies.  We were fortunate to suffer no damage but the roads took a pounding and I was hesitant to venture out but wanted to see the state of the Umgeni River so drove down to take a peek.  Though it had subsided considerably by then, it was nevertheless terrifying.

The sand-bank at the mouth was totally gone and the normally placid little trickle was a raging torrent over 100 m wide.

From the bridge it was evident the the sea was heavily silted with the waves looking like chocolate milkshake and the brown smear washing all the way down the Golden Mile to the harbour entrance and kilometers out into the bay.

At one stage the river had burst its banks and totally flooded the greens of this bowling club, a very minor annoyance compared to mudslides that washed away thousands of homes.  KZN is still counting the cost of last years riots and this is another devastating blow.

As April is filled with holidays that make camping uncomfortable, I abandoned the Beast at the Turner's and drove up to Boksburg to be with the family.  The six strays that my sister feeds has recently been expanded by four....... ah well!