Contrasting Scenes of Winter!

Contrasting Scenes of Winter! | Ecency

This post is for the #wednesdaywalk challenge and the #makemesmile challenge collaboration. This collaboration initially took place once a month, but due to its popularity, @tattoodjay (of the #wednesdaywalk) and @elizacheng (of #makemesmile) decided to make it a weekly thing.

If you want to know more about the rules, visit this week's post by @tattoodjay where you will find all the rules at the bottom of his post after you've enjoyed his beautiful photos from his walk.

Contrasting Scenes of Winter on the East Coast of South Africa

Contrasting scenes of winter is at the order of the day in the Outer West area of Durban on the East Coast of South Africa.

Growing up in the area of Johannesburg, South Africa, I always hated winter. Everything goes dry, dull, and dusty and there is absolutely no greenery around during winter time.

This was one of the reasons why both my wife and I were always dreaming of one day living somewhere along the East Coast of South Africa where there is a more tropical type of climate.

We always loved to get away from home during winter and head out toward the East Coast, because this is where we could enjoy the beauty of nature and greenery all around us at any time of the year.

That dream became a reality in 2003 when we moved down to the East Coast permanently.

Now that we are living here, we also notice the signs of winter even down here though. But in all honesty, thinking about this, I realized last week how spoilt we have become. Even though you see the presence of winter, and we have the presence of veld-fires in areas such as the Valley of a Thousand Hills, our surroundings are still predominantly green.

I realized this as I published photos of some beautiful green trees in a post I shared last week.

Those photos were taken during our summer season. We are now in winter and I decided to head out to the same area to show the difference between summer and winter in the same area.

Summer Scenery.

You can check out the beautiful green scenery in last week's post when you click the link above, but the first two photos in this post were also taken on the same day as the ones in last week's post.

So, this is what it looks like during our summer months.

Winter Scenery.

Now let me show you the exact same place now, during the winter months. The next two images were taken last weekend on Saturday morning.

The Beauty (and Contrast) of Our Winter on the East Coast.

Now let me show you some of the contrasts we see during our winter months. Call this a bit of "behind the scenes" fun if you like...lol.

Leaving Winston Park ( where I took the photos in the images above), I drove through Hillcrest where I took more photos...

Here I drove thorough Springside Road, 3KM away from where I took the first images (an 8 minute drive).

And this is the scenery in the following images, on the same day, 3KM (or 8 minutes) apart.

From there I took a drive down Ashley Drive in Gillitts. About 4KM from where I took the shots above, I found these three trees, reminding us that it is winter, yet still surrounded by greenery.

I then continued to Old Main Road in Kloof, about 5KM further. This is also on the same route as the Comrades Marathon that took place on Sunday morning, June 8.

You will see some red tape, a gazebo (tent) behind a picket fence, and some signage as they were busy preparing for the marathon the following day. But the scenery is full of greenery. Would you say this is winter? This is when I am reminded why I love living here...lol!