Subject: Back from Winter Holidays …..with Pictures
Author:
Pierre (South Africa)
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Date Posted:11:44:39 07/03/08 Thu Author Host/IP: wblv-ip-pcache-8-vif1.telkom-ipnet.co.za/198.54.202.250
Our family took a short winter holiday and visited our old family farm where some of my nephews still farm. It is situated in the remote Baviaanskloof Mountains in the Eastern Cape.
This is a very remote area and seldom visited and then usually only by 4 x 4 off road enthusiasts.
I showed my children where we used to play on the farm and up in the mountains when I was a kid. It is a place of extremities * the open plains very arid & dry with subtropical forests in the gorges where there are plenty of fountains and small rivers.
We did a lot of things in the few days: -
These mountains were inhabited since prehistoric times by Bushmen. The only thing that is left of them today is rock paintings in caves high up in the mountains - we found a few of these…
In the following picture, Pierre-Hneri is holding Porcupine pen in his hand that he picked up in the cave.
The following Bushman rock painting looks like two adults chasing each other – the one on the left is definitely a male … maybe his wife is chasing him?
We also searched for fossils and did find a few specimens embedded in rocks in an old dry riverbed. The first rock I picked up had a nasty looking scorpion under it!
Spot the two fossilized sea shells in this rock …
My boys have not hunted before so I borrowed my nephews .22 rifle and took them to shoot some "Dassies". Also known as the Cape Hyrax - a small, plump and tail-less guinea-pig-like animal is about as large as a big rabbit, which haunts rock outcrops, hillocks and mountain cliffs.
There is a small forest near the biggest fountain on the farm. Some giant wild fig trees grow here with the most amazing roots sticking out of the ground - it looks like a scene from Lord of the Rings…
When one wonders up the mountain you pass through a very narrow gorge with cliffs on both sides that are so steep that even the monkeys and baboons cannot accent here. When we passed through here a big male baboon was waiting on the other side that gave us a big fright with its haunting scream that alerted the rest of the troop (his not mine!)
Our holiday was much to short and it was with long faces that we took the 8 hour drive home, but hopefully will return again next year.
