Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Cango Caves - Western Cape, South Africa


A Spectacular natural underground ‘wonder world’ that took millions of years to form...
Simply breath-taking – Africa’s largest cave system, ‘Cango Caves’, consist of a series of the finest dripstone caverns that open into vast halls of (stalactite) and towering stalagmite formations with names like ‘the bridal couple’, ‘glass flower fantasy’, ‘weird Cango candle’ and ‘the hanging shawl’. Then of course there is Cleopatra’s Needle, which stands 9 metres high and is at least 150 000 years old, is one of the main attractions at the Cango Caves.
The ‘Cango Caves’ are located in Precambrian (a time about 4500 million years ago) limestone, at the foothills of the Swartberg range, in the Western Cape Province - 'Klein Karoo' of South Africa. It is said that some of the biggest stalagmite formations in the world set in Precambrian limestone.
This underground adventure is the only 'show cave' in Africa which offers a "Standard Tour" which takes an hour and an "Adventure Tour" which takes an hour and a half. The "Adventure Tour" consists of crawling through very narrow passages and climbing up steep rock formations guided by small lights.

Although the extensive system of tunnels and chambers go on for over four kilometres, only about a quarter of this is open to visitors, who may proceed into the cave only in groups supervised by a guide.
According to legend the caves were discovered during 1780 by a local farmer named Jacobus Van Zyl. Early visitors had to brave the pitch darkness of the vast caverns from the poor light of self-made candles. 
‘Cango Caves’
One of the world’s ‘spectacular’ natural underground
‘wonder-world’
'Thank You' to
'Mother Nature'

Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Magnificent “Sani Pass”

Said to be the “Mother" of all South African mountain passes…

 

On 22 Feb 2015, we did a day visit to ‘Sani Pass’. 
‘Sani Pass’ is located in the West of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa - between the border controls of KwaZulu Natal and Lesotho.  The gravel, winding road is extremely dangerous and requires the use of a 4x4 vehicle.  The route starts at 1544m and climbs (vertically ) to an altitude of 2876m and is approximately 9 km in length. 

I've read somewhere that the pass was built around 1950.  Caution must be exercised throughout the journey up and down the pass .  This journey has claimed many lives.  One can expect bad weather at any time, with snowfalls around October.  A note on the wall indicated:  'Coldest Temperature 2012 (8 June, 8pm) - 21 degrees.  First snow fall 2013 - Monday 11 February'.

The Lesotho Plateau:

At the top it was icy cold, surprisingly within half km out into the Lesotho Kingdom the weather changed to bright and sunny.  We were also surprised to see beautiful scenic views and some vegetation coming out of this fairly dry land.

Thursday, 15 October 2015

Autumn Flowers or 'Anemone x hybrida 'Luise Uhink'

Our Favourite 'Easter Flowers'
Saturday Morning, 28.3.2015, whilst driving to Gauteng, we were reminded that 'Easter' is around the corner when we witnessed the continuous 'spray' of (our favourite) 'Easter Flowers', well that's what we called them as children back in the days .  The correct name is

These beautiful flowers courtesy of 'Mother Nature’ can really bring out the 'JOY' in any passer-by .  The blessings of 'Autumn'.  A beautiful 'Blessing' indeed, since everything around them seems to be going to sleep in preparation for 'cold winter' that's to follow shortly.
Enjoy!  



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