Autumn Awesomeland

Last weekend we left our boards behind, and instead packed our spades, hiking boots and heavy winter mountain gear.  We went to the Cederberg which is about 2 hours north of Cape Town, quite high at 2000m and often gets below freezing this time of year.  That's cold for us.

Technically, we were going to a beach, we were just a bit late - by a few hundred million years.  But the gnarled sandstone formations was once beach sand, and if you go high enough to find the band of shale that runs through all the Cape Mountains, you can easily see patterns of flowing water etched into the sand on which trilobites roamed (possibly, not entirely sure of my paleo-geological timing there, but then neither was Spielberg when he made Jurassic Park.  actually, no, now that I think about, I think i'm right about that.).

Anyways, on the topic of extinctions, the main aim of the weekend was to plant some ceder trees.  Our local ceders are on the brink thanks to excessive logging back in the day and climate change and all too frequent fires these days.  As beautiful as the mountains are, when one visits the last thick stand of surviving trees, one begins to imagine how amazing they must have been in past.  So, it's good to put a trowel into a stony ground and do a bit of environmental engineering.  It felt good and in 100 years or so, I may have offset the carbon I've expended these past few weeks chasing waves around the coast.

chillos on the way up

At home in the cold

Another one goes to earth

up close

We partied pretty hard on the Saturday and I did my usual stunt of crashing early.  But that was fine, because on the Sunday morning, there was a dusting of frost which made everything shimmer.  Depending on where you live, this may seem normal, but for us Cape okes, we dont' get this thing to often.  At a higher altitude, the climate there is more temperate than meditterranean and this sort of transports you further from your home than just the distance.  With some leaves still turning on the trees, it had a crisp autumn feel to it.  So, not a winter wonderland, but an autumn awesomeland.

I got a few snaps, which I hope you enjoy.

back light sparkle

An untrodden bridge

Frosty grass

Some autumn shades