I want to show you just how rugged it looks here on the south Cape coast of Africa. The spaciousness also includes a vast degree of freedom. Maybe I’m projecting or imagining it. I don’t know how your conditions might be on the ground, but here I feel as free as a bird. Perhaps it’s the fact that my terrain consists of clifftops and plenty of wide open sky. Not everyone has that around the world.
Feeling as free as this bird
Add to that of course the vast expanse of ocean. It’s basically sea and sky with a little bit of land, by comparison. That about sums up our beautiful planet. A blue ball with patches of green and ochre. Also the weather is so moderate and temperate all year round that it makes up for the somewhat spartan feel of the place. It’s not very soft, but rather hard and rocky. I hardly find a pinch of sand anywhere on this particular stretch of the cliff sides that I frequent. The beach itself is nothing but masses of boulders or stones. And the remainder is rocky outcrop.
Not much in the way of sand yet the vegetation finds a way to exist
Actually at low tide with some effort I managed to recently find the sand. It was underwater among some rocky boulders. Low tide here is just awesome as it opens up a whole terrain of rock pools to explore as well as in which to bathe. Generally the shoreline is rocky and the waves crash against the rocks making it impossible to even launch a boat, what to speak of swim. But here and there some really awesome rock pools dot the coast, and it feels like Thailand, but just more rugged. Not quite as much fish though, although fishermen do use a rod and line to catch food from the sea itself sometimes.
Fine white beach sand does indeed exist here, if you look deeply enough
I still marvel at how the natural spring water just pops out of the rock spontaneously in odd areas along the cliff side, sometimes very close to the sea shore itself. I’m generally quite happy to drink it in most places as it appears to be direct run off from the rains. The flow is gradually becoming less as we move toward summer. For a few months most of it dries up and then reappears toward winter again. Summers are hot and dryer in this Mediterranean climate of the south.
Notice the pure rain water trickling out of the rock wall within meters from the shoreline
Here and there the rock that comprises this cliff top actually changes color as I hike along it or climb down to the beaches below. Here I’ve come across a totally while stretch. There is some healthy black soil but the rock itself looks as white as a cloud. The rock down the cliffside is more ochre so I guess we have striations of differing rock making up our cliffs here. I doubt these are like Dover, though I’ve never been there. It’s probably smaller and more accessible here. Dover appears bigger. And the weather is awesome here all year long. Did I say that already? It’s something you just can’t get tired of appreciating. Even if it’s a rainy winter’s day, It will be so mild that I still take a few hour hike, I just wear a rain coat.
The vegetation produces the most curious succulents along this entire stretch of the Cape coastline, stretching all the way to Cape Town about 550km west of me. Right now in Spring the bright pink flowers are just dazzlingly bright. It’s quite over the top. I’ll post another blog in coming days with more photos specifically of the Spring blossoms proliferating the cliff sides and coastline here in the Cape right now.
It would be easy to camp out overnight here if necessary now that winter is over. I’m inclined to spending more and more time under this open sky along these isolated shoreline cliffs. They have totally become my second home. So many little caves offer shelter and place for a fire. Let’s see if I can make it happen. Life back in the towns seems so unattractive by comparison. This is what freedom feels like. What a luxury in today’s civilization. Who would have thought that I would be born in one of the best places in the world to be alive right now?
(photos my own)