It’s been over a month since I posted a “Monday Geology Picture”. Apologies for that — I was traveling (4 weeks in a row!) and was very busy. Anyway, I’ll try to post regularly again now. Today I’m sharing an impressive example of biological weathering, which is when a living organism contributes to the weathering of a rock. In this case, large tree roots are breaking apart a sedimentary rock. I took this picture yesterday when I was hiking on Table Mountain here in Cape Town with my family.
Today is my last day in Australia. Today, my family, some friends, and I spent a few hours exploring the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney. There are many beautiful and amazing plants in the garden. However, one plant in particular caught my eye: the Wollemi Pine, which is considered a living fossil because until the tree was discovered in the 1990s it was only known from the fossil record. The Wollemi Pine is critically endangered, with only few wild trees remaining in remote sandstone gorges located about 150 km outside of Sydney. While wild trees are uncommon, cultivated trees have become fairly common. In fact, you can buy your very own Wollemi Pine tree in the garden gift shop. I didn’t buy one because I live in South Africa, but if you’re in Australia you should consider buying one to add to your garden.
Here’s a sign board with a little more information about the tree:
For my “Monday Geology Picture” post yesterday I shared a picture of a dinosaur sculpture that is currently on display at Kirstenbosch Gardens here in Cape Town, South Africa. This sculpture is one of several dinosaur sculptures on display in the gardens. Today, as I promised, I’m sharing a few more pictures of the sculptures. These large metal dinosaurs were installed in the gardens in 2015 to raise awareness about cycads, which are plants that grew in abundance when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Today, however, many cycad species are critically endangered and may soon, like the dinosaurs, become extinct. The beautiful dinosaur sculptures are the work of Zimbabwean artist David Huni.
Walking amongst the dinosaur sculptures, which are reasonably scientifically accurate, in the beautiful gardens is a real treat. If you find yourself in Cape Town, please do go visit the sculptures – you won’t regret it! The sculptures will be on display in the gardens through 2017.
Those are all of the dinosaur sculpture pictures that I have to share today. I didn’t take pictures of all of the sculptures (there are nine of them), so I’ll try to visit Kirstenbosch Gardens again sometime soon to take some more pictures of these lovely sculptures. The pictures in this post were taken back in May, shortly after the exhibit opened.
This week’s Monday Geology Picture features a dinosaur in a botanical garden. Specifically, it features a giant metal sculpture of a dinosaur that is part of an exhibit in Kirstenbosch Gardens here in Cape Town, South Africa. The sculpture is one of several dinosaur sculptures that have been installed in the gardens as part of an exhibit to raise awareness about cycads, which are ancient plants that have been around for several hundred million years. Currently endangered, cycads were common millions of years ago, during the same time period when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. However, if cycads are not carefully conserved they could join the dinosaurs and become extinct.
Tomorrow, I’ll share some more pictures of dinosaur sculptures in Kirstenbosch Gardens. For now, enjoy this one picture as a “sneak peak”.
Yesterday was my 30th birthday. Amongst other wonderful things, my husband Jackie organized a surprise birthday party for me at Oudekraal, a beautiful beach (and national park) here in Cape Town. Bordered on one side by gigantic boulders and turquoise-blue waters and flanked on the other side by tall, jagged, gray-green mountains, Oudekraal is a stunning location. Jackie rented a kayak, brought plenty of delicious picnic food, and invited many good friends for my party. The weather was beautiful, and we all had a great time. I’d never been to Oudekraal Beach before, but I hope to return soon!
Here are a few more views of gorgeous Oudekraal:
Today I’ll be discussing the fourth and final day of my recent backpacking trip along the Tsitsikamma Trail with my husband Jackie and five of our friends. I’ve already blogged about Day #1, Day #2, and Day #3. On Day #4 we hiked 11.5 km from the Kerbous Hut to the Lottering Plantation, where we had parked one of our cars.
Hiking the full Tsitsikamma Trail actually takes six days. So, we hiked to the Lottering Plantation along a dirt road “escape route” that is used by forest rangers to take care of the trees on the plantation and also to service the Kerbous Hut and check on the hikers staying there. The road may also be used during rainstorms, when rivers and streams may flood and hikers may need to cut their backpacking trip short. However, we cut our trip short on purpose as we had only planned to hike for four days.
Since we had a long drive back to Cape Town (and many of us had to work the next day!), we woke up very early on our last day and started hiking at dawn. We actually hiked all 11.5 km before 10 am! We made much better time than we expected, probably because most of the hike was along a wide dirt road. Also, after we survived a couple of hours of uphill climbing, the rest of the hike was mostly downhill.
The plantation staff looked slightly surprised to see us arrive so early. After a few minutes of picture taking and relaxing, we ran shuttle to fetch the second car and then started the long seven hour drive back to Cape Town.
Here are a few pictures from our hike out to the Lottering Plantation:
Here’s the group at Lottering Plantation at the end of the hike:
I really enjoyed this backpacking trip. The trail is well maintained and organised and winds its way amongst some impressive geology and vegetation.
The huts where we stayed were very comfortable, and it was great that we didn’t have to carry tents and heavy cooking equipment.
If you find yourself in South Africa, I highly recommend spending a few days hiking along the Tsitsikamma Trail! If you’re not up for all six days, you can arrange a two or three or four day hike or even a single day hike.
Today I’m continuing with my account of my recent backpacking trip along the Tsitsikamma Trail with my husband Jackie and five of our friends. Today, I’ll blog about Day #3 of the trip. I discussed Day #2 and Day #1 previously. On Day #3 we hiked 13.4 km from Blaauwkrans Hut to Keurbos Hut. Along the way, we passed through more beautiful fynbos and indigenous afromontane forest, and we made numerous river and stream crossings.
We started out the day by crossing the stunning, coca-cola colored double waterfall that we could see from Blaauwkrans Hut. Here’s a picture of that waterfall again:
After we crossed over the double waterfall, we hiked up onto and across a fynbos-covered plateau and looked back on Blaauwkrans Hut from above:
We soon came across some more animal tracks:
After an hour or so of hiking, we entered the forest:
While hiking through the forest, we saw many impressive trees. For instance, this tall Yellowwood:
After awhile, we emerged from the forest and walked through fynbos again. We had some beautiful views of the folded sandstone mountains as we walked through the fynbos:
Here are a few pretty fynbos plants:
After a little while, we headed down into a valley to cross the Bloukrantz (or Blaauwkrans) River:
After crossing the Bloukrantz River, we had a steep climb back up onto the plateau, where we again found ourselves in fynbos:
We saw several lovely examples of king protea, which is South Africa’s national flower:
We hiked along the fynbos plateau for a few hours and also stopped for a long lunch break. We were fairly hungry and tired!
In the mid-afternoon we arrived at another patch of forest. This particular patch of forest was my favorite of the trip as it felt particularly enchanting. There are several rusty red colored streams cascading through the thick green vegetation of this section of the forest. There are also many tall, wide green ferns. In this section of forest, I felt as if we would come across Tarzan or maybe a dinosaur!
After we emerged from the forest, we found the jeep track leading to Keurbos Hut. At long last, we arrived at the hut itself:
That’s all I have for Day #3 on the Tsitsikamma Trail. Stay tuned for Day #4!
Today, I’m continuing with my posts about my recent backpacking trip along the Tsitsikamma Trail in South Africa with my husband Jackie and five of our friends. Earlier today, I realized that blogging about my Tsitsikamma Trail trip this week is appropriate since this is Earth Science Week and The Geological Society is encouraging people to participate in what they are calling, “The Great Geology Walk”. This event is aimed at getting, “as many people as possible will take notice of the geology all around them during this year’s Earth Science Week.” The Geological Society is encouraging people to share pictures of the geology they observe around them and also encouraging people to participate in organized and self-guided geology walks. This week I’m pretty busy with my day job and also with paper revisions in the evenings, so I guess my geology walk will be virtual. I’ll relive (and share with my blog readers) my Tsitsikamma Trail hike. Perhaps on Friday afternoon or Saturday I can escape for a real-life geology walk as well!
Today I’ll be blogging about Day #2 of the Tsitsikamma Trail hike. On Day #2 we hiked approximately 17 km from Kalander Hut to Blaauwkrans Hut. The trail website says that the hike is 13.5 km, but the trail website is out-of-date. The day’s hike has been re-routed and lengthened to about 17 km, making the hike long and challenging. We didn’t realize that the trail had been re-routed until after we were more than halfway done with the hike. I think that was actually a good thing! Once we were more than halfway done, we decided that we may as well carry on to the next hut!
In any case, although we were exhausted, very hungry, and quite sore when we finally arrived at Blaauwkrans Hut in the late afternoon, the hike was well worth the effort and the little aches and pains. The trail wound its way from the beach, up a steep escarpment, across mountain fynbos, and through indigenous afromontane forest. Along the way, we saw fossils; tilted Table Mountain sandstones; rusty red, coca-cola colored streams and waterfalls; giant protea flowers and tall, tall yellowwood trees; various animal footprints; a large land snail; and many other wonderful sights. At the end of the 17 km hike, we arrived at the hut, which is in a truly breathtakingly beautiful location. The hut is perched on the edge of a deep ravine and overlooks a double waterfall.
The hike started out by passing an outcrop with fossils, which made me quite happy:
The fossil outcrop is located just a few minutes’ walk from the Kalander Hut. I wasn’t able to find (in a quick Google search, at least) any information about the fossils, but they look like fairly young shell fossils in loosely-consolidated sediments of a vegetation-covered beach dune. If anyone knows any more about the fossils near Kalander Hut, please let me know. I’d love to learn more about them.
After the group dragged me away from the fossil outcrop, we started the steep hike up the escarpment and into the Tsitsikamma Mountains. After we finished huffing and puffing our way up onto the escarpment, we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the Nature’s Valley beach below:
After we recovered from the steep start to the hike, we continued along the trail, which cut through rich mountain fynbos vegetation:
Here’s a pretty protea plant we saw:
Here’s the group on the trail:
We didn’t encounter many animals along the trail, but we did observe many animal tracks. Here are a couple of the tracks we saw:
After awhile, we made our way into the indigenous afromontane forest. The forest felt very old and magical and was full of tall trees (such as yellowwood trees), bright red and orange mushrooms, and thick green vegetation. I felt almost as if I had stepped into a fairytale world. I half expected to encounter hobbits, elves, or fairies along the path.
We stopped for lunch by a coca-cola colored waterfall cascading over some Table Mountain sandstone rocks:
We didn’t stop for lunch for too long because it started to rain:
Fortunately, we (well, at least two of us!) were well-prepared for the rain:
After a couple more hours of hiking through the forest, we arrived at the jeep track leading to the Blaauwkrans Hut:
We followed the jeep track for a few kilometers. As we continued, we could see the Bloukrans Bridge in the distance:
If you dare, you can bungee jump from the Bloukrans Bridge.
We also passed some impressively tilted Table Mountain sandstone:
We also walked across some leisegang weathering:
At long last, we arrived at Blaauwkrans Hut:
Here are some more views of the hut and its associated facilities:
Last but not least, here is the view from the front porch of the sleeping hut:
Isn’t that double waterfall stunning? Here’s a closer view:
Here’s a picture of Jackie and me on the front porch of the hut:
We saw some animals during our stay at Blaauwkrans Hut. We saw a troop of baboons hanging out above the waterfall:
We also saw a genet, but it moved too quickly for us to take a picture.
Well, that’s it for Day #2 of the Tsitsikamma Trail. Stay tuned for Day #3!
When looking at rocks here in South Africa, geologists (and other outdoor adventurers) often encounter animals that live amongst the rocks. One of the most common animals which they encounter is the dassie or rock hyrax, an adorable creature that lives in groups in rock crevices. I’ve featured dassies before here and here on my “Monday Geology Picture” posts. This week, I wanted to share a picture of a dassie that my husband Jackie recently saw amongst some rocks in Hermanus. He was down in Hermanus a couple of weeks ago to go whale watching and attend a flower show with his mother. While walking around the town, Jackie and my mother-in-law spotted some dassies scurrying amongst the rocks. Jackie took the above picture of one dassie that wandered fairly close. It’s a cute little dassie, isn’t it?
What sorts of critters do you encounter amongst the rocks?
A couple of weeks ago, I went on a backpacking trip with my husband Jackie and five of our friends. We drove from our home in Cape Town, South Africa about seven hours down the coast to the Garden Route National Park. We went to hike the Tsitsikamma Trail, a 6 day, 60 km long trail that winds its way through the beautiful Tsitsikamma Mountains, which contain areas of indigenous afromontane forest and mountain fynbos. Fynbos is a type (a floral kingdom, in fact!) of shrubland or heathland vegetation that is found only in the southwestern part of South Africa. Fynbos is known for its high biodiversity and for its large numbers of endemic plants– that is, plants that are found nowhere else in the world. The Tsitsikamma Trail also meanders past a beautiful beach on the Indian Ocean, amongst impressive exposures of Table Mountain sandstones, and across many beautiful rivers and streams, which are either clear or a rusty red color. The word Tsitsikamma comes from the Khoekhoe language and means “clear water” or, possibly, “place of much water” or “waters begin”.
Jackie, our friends, and I started hiking the Tsitsikamma Trail on Thursday, September 19th and completed the first four days of the hike, finishing on Sunday, September 22nd. We didn’t fail to complete the entire hike– we actually planned to do just four days of the hike. We decided to do just four days primarily because our vacation time was limited. I guess we were also a little worried about our fitness level! The hike was physically challenging, but all seven of us managed to keep up a fairly good pace, even while carrying heavy backpacks! After the hike, I was quite sore for a couple of days. However, the soreness was well worth it. The Tsitsikamma Mountains are full of magical places, and it was wonderful to spend four days re-connecting with the natural world, my smartphone turned off and my emails ignored.
The trail is very well maintained and organized. Along the trail, there are five huts where hikers can stay overnight. The huts are very nice with a sleeping area, a lapa (a covered cooking / fireplace area), flush toilets, running water, and showers. There is no electricity, but kettles can be used to heat water for hot showers. The huts (with the exception of Kalander Hut, which has limited service because the road to the hut recently washed away) are stocked with firewood and other supplies. The cost for using the huts is R70 (a little less than US $10) per person per night. The huts are regularly checked on and maintained by forest rangers, who also keep an eye on all the hiking groups. Many hikers carry their own gear (food, extra clothes, water, sleeping bags, etc.) in large backpacks. That’s the option that our group chose. However, hikers who want a more leisurely hiking experience can pay to have their gear portaged between huts and can just hike with day packs. Hikers don’t have to pack in too much (heavy!) water since there is plenty of fresh water along the trail. The huts all have running water, and there are many streams along the trail. It is safe to drink the water at most huts and from most streams. As a precaution, I did treat my water with sterilization tablets. However, many of my South African friends drank the water directly and suffered no ill effects. In any case, you only need to carry enough water for a day or part of a day.
Over four posts, I would like to share some pictures and information from our Tsitsikamma Trail hike. I will devote one post to every day of the hike.
Here is the hiking schedule we followed:
Day #1: Leave Cape Town early and drive 7 hours to the start of the hike in Nature’s Valley. Shuttle one car to the Lottering Plantation. Hike 3.6 km from Nature’s Valley to Kalander Hut.
Day #2: Hike approximately 17 km (note that the map below is outdated and that the trail has been re-routed and is now significantly longer) from Kalander Hut to Blaauwkrans (or Bloukrantz) Hut.
Day #3: Hike 13.4 km from Blauuwkrans Hut to Keurbos Hut.
Day #4: Hike 11.5 km along the “escape route” from Keurbos Hut to Lottering Plantation. Drive 7 hours back to Cape Town.
After four days of hiking and driving, we were fairly exhausted for work on Monday morning. Fortunately, the Tuesday was a public holiday (Heritage Day) in South Africa, so we only had to work one day before we had a day to rest.
Here are some maps showing the location of the Tsitsikamma Trail:
Today, I’ll be sharing some pictures from the first day of our hike. The first day was a short hike to the Kalander Hut, which is located close to the beach. When we arrived at the hut, it was nearly dark. So, we visited the beach very quickly then prepared dinner. We visited the beach again early the next morning before we started on our long hike to Blaauwkrans Hut.
Stay tuned for Day #2 on the Tsitsikamma Trail!
Georneys 