Bitou Local Municipality, Western Cape, South Africa
Although some of the South African region is quite dry, my hike today took me to a particularly lush section of the coastline, here on the Garden Route section of the Western Cape shores. This area is fed by a little stream that flows when there is enough rainwater, which is most of the time. As a result the landscape is covered with a carpet of green vegetation all the way down the slope until it meets the rocky beach at sea level.
Even the trees that make up this little forest-like enclave are covered with masses of vines and creepers that grow right up to the tip of the tree branches, like a mat of hair or wool covering an animal. Even some of the dead trees are still covered with this green carpet of lush vegetation, making the entire place appear to be bursting with life.
The remaining trees pop up from the green carpet of life and although some of them are dead from the massive historic fire that swept through here four years ago, still the area appears to have bounced back and is flourishing with new vegetation. This small pocket of lush forest is just to be found in this particular bay or alcove along the vast stretch of coastline, like a micro-climate unto itself, thanks to the ideal water source and weather conditions that are unique, along with the shelter that the surrounding cliffs provide.
I found another specimen of what I call the upside down trees. These are tress that grow on the steep slopes leading down to the shoreline from the cliffs above. At some point after a few years, they become too heavy or the ground shifts and gravity topples them over. However, some of their roots remain embedded in the ground and so they continue to live and grow, even though they are actually technically upside down now. Their roots are higher up than their trunk and branches. They can remain like this for years it seems. It’s so strange to imagine, but here it is.
Once I had made it to the shoreline, after a steep climb down through the lush canopy and carpet of trees and foliage, I cam across a unique display of rock imagery that I hadn’t seen on any of the other sections of my hike along these southernmost shores. The rock in this particular section of the coast appears to be striped, like a zebra. Nature never ceases to amaze me with its new and diverse sights as I move from one alcove to the next all along this African shoreline. I presume the stripes are due to actual striations in the rock itself. They don’t seem to be from external covering on the rock surface but are literally embedded as part of the rock itself. Perhaps you can explain it.
Back up at the cliff tops, the view down to the shoreline below looks most inviting, and that’s what inspires me to make the effort to find a path down. There are sometimes small fishermen’s paths to some of the bays but others lack any path that I can see so I simply have to find my own way down like a mountain goat. After some months of hiking along these shores, I have developed an eye for the terrain and the ability to pick out what might be a potential route down the bare rock to the shoreline below.
Since it’s such a remote and deserted area, I presume I’m one of the only people to actually reach some of these places sometimes. What an exiting feeling, like that of an explorer finding a part of the planet that has rarely ever been accessed by any other human beings, or so it seems in my adventures and my imagination. And it certainly looks that way, since I seldom ever see another human on these cliffs and beaches at all, over my many months of exploration.
For now I will continue my exploration along these remote and rugged shores of the African south coast, and bring you more rare footage of the space here, so that you too can get a glimpse of a paradise not seen by the rest of the world. The planet is still big enough for one to get lost or hide from the encroachment of civilization or urbanization. Here I am experiencing the road less traveled and am all the more happy for it. Feel free to come and check it out personally when your own travels eventually bring you this way. And give me a shout once you’re here as I will be happy to show you my discoveries in person along this part of the southernmost shores of the African continent and the entire planet.
(photos my own)
