Sunday 27 February 2011

Rod's Trail

Things are slowly getting back to normal. The walks are almost becoming routine! This delightful trail winds its way following the contours of the Voorberg above Betty’s Bay, with lovely views of the coastal strip and the alarmingly intrusive strip development of the coastal settlement itself. Unfortunately, there is very little architectural merit in any of the residential development. Because the whole village is no more than 60 years old, there is no architectural heritage, no unifying idiom, very little evidence of any planning and a distinct absence of taste.  The village stretches along 10km of coastline, scrunched between the lovely coastline and the glorious mountain range. A more ordinary human hamlet in a more sublime natural environment would be hard to imagine.

But the walk itself is lovely. It winds up the mountain from the beautiful Harold Porter Gardens and then snakes along the coastal strip, descending every now and then into ravines where in the rainy season, great torrents of water descend to the sea from the mountains above. The flora is therefore constantly changing from riverine forest to fijnbos, the uniquely beautiful flora of the Western Cape. Although much of the bush has been burned by repeated fires, there is still a wonderful array of flora to be seen. This is really not the best time of the year to see the flowers, but the amazing thing about fijnbos is that there really isn’t a season when one won’t be taken aback at the huge variety and incredible delicacy of the plants on natural display.

My major problem was that it had rained the previous night, and the bush was still rather wet, so that in minutes, my footwear was completely sodden and I squelched along through the bush. There seemed little I could do about this, so I decided just to take my pictures and ignore the problem, but I will have to take issues such as this a lot more seriously when I set out on the LEJOG. Another learning point.

Towards the far end of the walk, the path curves down to the main road through Betty’s Bay (where I helped myself to an excellent Magnum ice-cream from the local garage) and then on to “Main Beach”, for the return walk or the third leg of the oblong. The final leg takes one along the David’s Kraal River through unique riverine forest back to the Harold Porter Gardens and then a short stretch home along the main road (R44). Altogether a lovely, varied walk of about 9km which fully deserves the plaudits it receives in the local guide books.

 Fire-scarred slopes of the Voorberg
 Main Beach from Rod's Trail
 An orange-breasted sunbird
 An orange Watsonia
The main swimming beach, with not a soul in sight
This fascinating piece of Afrikana recalls the fact the HF Verwoerd, the conceptualiser of the abhorrent system of separate-development or apartheid in South Africa, was a regular visitor to Betty's Bay. My friend Paul, who is an expert in Afrikana once surmised that this plaque would never survive the transition to the "New South Africa", either because it would be removed by those who wanted to get rid of any trace of the hated regime, or by treasure hunters who would steal it for its future value as an authentic bit of Afrikana. It is fascinating that it has survived the transformation so far; another very minor indication of how little has so far changed through South Africa's miraculous, peaceful transition.
 The trird leg of the walk; the return along Main Beach
A family of Egyptian Gueese took to the sea to avoid a confrontation. The little flotilla was perfectly happy bobbing up and down in the waves
 And so towards the final leg; a boardwalk leads to the David's Kraal river, away from the sea.
 And the path winds back to Harold Porter through riverine forest.

2 comments:

John F said...

Good to see you are back in action Uncle K, after all your recent medical adventures! Look forward to the next instalment.
Dont know whether its me, but I cannot get the Everytrail record of Rods trail, whereas I can for the others?

Kevin said...

John,
Excellent to hear from you, even if it is a complaint! Nothing changes!! By the way though, I do see what you mean. It may be that I made a mistake in attaching the link. Anyway, I have now reattached it, so give it a try and see if it is working now. Warm regards, Kevin