Our adventure took us down a winding road, this way and that way, through a forest nature reserve.
Our daughter wanted to show us a waterfall picnic spot that she knew was very popular in the summertime. So off we went with great expectations.
The destination was the Debengeni Falls, in the Magoebaskloof, Tzaneen area of the northern Transvaal.
See on the Google map, right next to the Woodbush reserve:
And you can find it on the internet at: https://www.tripadvisor.co.za/Attraction_Review-g469386-d6692239-Reviews-Debengeni_Waterfall-Tzaneen_Limpopo_Province.html
The road she took twisted and turned this way and that, through valleys and forest glades. One minute you we high on a mountain top:
And the next, you were looking through screens of popular trees:
To me it seemed like we were never ever going to get to the place. Then the road started going down deeper into a valley. And then, all of a sudden there we were.
We parked our car in the shade of some trees and ventured down into what looked like a picnic area. And it was complete empty. We were the only people there!
Then looking up to our left we saw…
The photo of the falls looks somewhat flat. That is because cameras flatten mountain ranges, and in this case waterfalls. But in fact the waterfall is much higher than what the photo shows.
We didn’t climb to the top of the falls ourselves, but our daughter said people liked to climb to the top and then slide all the way down, like a natural slide.
She said people frolic and yell out with happy rip-roaring laugher as they whiz down the falls in their bathing costumes.
The picture she played into our minds, made it look like it was a lot of fun to do, especially if you had a lot of friends with you too doing it.
But now it was all peacefully quiet and beautiful. Even so, I would so have liked to have seen people having a time of their lives on the falls. But it wasn’t to be and sadly I had to accept that.
Looking around us we selected a spot to eat our lunch. And after eating, I started taking photographs of our surroundings. These two photos below in the collage, aren't where we ate our picnic lunch, it is what we looked on to from where we sat:
I love exploring down rivers and around boulders to see what else I can photograph. So I was happy when it was decided that we explore further down into the valley.
So climbing down, this is what it looked like down there:
The day was starting to wane and with the sun filtering through the trees, we thought it best to start back up the path way:
And here is an oil painting I did of the autumn forest road scene:
And I’m going to paint a huge oil painting of this same scene in the coming weeks for our daughter and her husband. Except, I’m going to do it in softer dreamer colours, so that their lounge will have a greater feeling of depth!
