From all the hiking I've been doing since arrival, my New-New Balance shoes look like they're 5 years old. The new bike I got about a month ago is filthy with dust and scrapes. I love them both. The 3 part goal I set for myself regarding JH was completed today. I got up on time, pulled a back muscle reaching for the alarm (not kidding), had espresso and read Salem's Lot while I waited for the near overdose of South African Excedrin to kick in. When I could stand up, I surveyed my ankles (they've been swollen this week) and seeing they were ok, set out for JH Park Reserve with my insect net in it's holster.
An hour and 7k's later (above is a glimpse of the early parts of the bike ride up) I arrived at the gates and rested for a while, as the next leg of the journey was a 5k sand/rock jeep trail with dishumourous inclines. You can hear me gasping for air in this video, not long after starting the jeep trail (it starts off with a nasty little hill).
I did that part in an hour, too, then tied my bike up at a pole with info leading to the waterfall hikes. Here are some pictures of the 6.4km hike, progressing as they do on the hike. I know it's a lot of pictures, and some pretty nerdy, but it's the first time I've been able to do this hike on my own, and to be able to take my time.
This view to my left, while hiking is of the many dead proteas that one sees hiking all over the area. When fires come through, they burn, but retain their structure- often times re-sprouting new growth from the base. Sometimes though you just get a sea of dead protea. Here also is a little lizzard I caught with my multi-functional net. He was surprisingly accommodating. No, he didn't end up in a jar.
Here is where the landscape starts to shift from riparian to almost forest- with lots of overhang and boulders. You hike into a series of small waterfalls that now are only trickles with small pools, but in a few months it will be a pretty healthy river, I'm told. The video is when I've rock hopped up the river as far as you can go---horizontally. That's when I started to climb up the rocks.
Perspective is hard in these pictures but trust me, gravity and sharp edges were very much on my mind. I was being VERY careful, and was VERY thankful that I've gotten strong enough to hang onto tree branches and swing from rock to rock (for real). The last time I did this, I slid down a rock to land on a little platform. In these situations, the landings aren't the problem, it's the momentum. I hit the ground and of course kept going, my center of gravity beyond my feet and almost went over the side. That might have been the scariest moment of my life, but obviously I didn't die. On this trip, I tossed my bag down first and maneuvered a little differently to avoid a similar situation. The picture (the one with my knees) is right before my mini descent, as I didn't know if I'd make it or not. This way, I figured, there'd be a very appropriate final picture of me, seconds before my death. There were some cool galls up there that I sampled and will bust open later, too.
I reached the fabled top pool after, I think something like 20 minutes? I lost my net en route (don't worry, I collected it on the way back) so alas, though I saw damselflies (maybe antlions, actually, I didn't get a good look at the antenna), I didn't get any. Sorry for the awkward picture, but I had to race to that rock before the auto-timer took the picture. There were lots of frogs again, and just as many tadpoles, but this time I took note more of the lichens:
After that little rest, pestering the wildlife, I carefully climbed down the rocks, thanking the trees for being as strong as they were. Back down the 6.4k trail, the 5k back to the gates followed by the 7k back to Concordia (my housing). All in all, it was about 7 hours and 20 minutes and a great day.
Yesterday a fire started on the mountain- not Stellenbosch Mountain, one of the other ones in the chain that I can't recall the name of (note that the listed blog dates are just the dates I started the blog, not the date I actually published it). It's a little more south and east. I have no idea if it was a planned burn or what, but the winds were really strong that day, so any spark in that dry environment would have blown a great distance. It burned into the night, and the next day it was still smoking when the sun went down.Last week I went to my first Potjie. Per Wiki: In South Africa, potjiekos (pronounced /ˈpɔɪkiːkɒs/), literally translated "small pot food", is a stew prepared outdoors in a traditional round,cast iron, three-legged pot (the potjie) which is found in the homes and villages of people throughout southern Africa.[1] The pot is heated efficiently using small amounts of wood, charcoal or if fuel is scarce, twisted grass or even dried animal dung.
Some friends from entomology pulled me into the fold and I was actually a part of the team (We were "Corein and the Foreigners"). As they have no faith in my potjie abilities, I was assigned the task of making the rice, which the potjie is ladled onto. The girl in the pink shirt is Gail, who has graciously offered to have me stay with her and her family at their farm in Namibia over break. The guy behind her is Henry, who has offered to go on a hike on the eastern coast through the jungles if I promise that I'll go (he's afraid I'm an American Flake). Notice all the bare feet...
