Scotland has castles, Germany has beer, England has countryside, Italy has ruins, France has, well, frogs, Austria has hills, India has curry, Thailand has beaches, Greece has islands, Australia has reefs, Kenya has animals. South Africa has all of these – and usually in the same place.
And often we overlook just how beautiful these attractions are. It is only when you look at a topographical map that you realise that the southern Cape coastline is actually a series of delicate mountain ranges marching along the coast and trailing their tails in the sea. The road between Port Elizabeth and Plettenberg Bay goes over the top of a number of river gorges of deep mysterious grey rock with shy ferns at the bottom. All you ever see of them is a gap on the side of the road, a glimpse of stone, and a patch of bridge. From the bottom, however, they are so gorgeous that – if they were anywhere else on earth – they would be international beauty spots with hot dog stands, postcard kiosks and curio shops selling tins of air.
Then there is the amazing Karoo. My most enduring travel memory is driving to Grahamstown from Kimberley on an early winter misty morning. The sun was rising and as we came over a hill just after Smithfield, the huge flat plain in front of us was a sea of pale pink mist, shot through with gold, with koppies rising out like enchanted islands, stretching off into the unimaginable distance. We were all so captivated by the sight that our driver narrowly avoided leaving the road to wipe out the Karoo’s only tree.
Of course, this is just on the surface. The country underground is writhing with undiscovered fossils, which very few people know about but which get palaeontologists into an ecstatic froth. And where there are fossils, there are thick and abundant seams of precious metals, stones and other Aladdin’s-cave-type goodies.
On the fauna and flora front, we have the flowers and the fluffies. And I’m not talking about the large obvious ones, I’m talking about the ones you have to get down on your hands and knees to see. Usually you have to be nimble and quick because whatever you are getting close to is likely to slither off if you take too long.
Our natural features are just wonderful. They are not as big as the Rockies (thank goodness) and they are not as tiny as the European lakes (which always make me nervous when I cruise on them in case I inadvertently pull out the plug). The best, of course, are the lesser known ones: the unexpected little waterfall, the beautifully-decorated Ndebele hut in the middle of nowhere, the strange knuckles of rock that don’t appear to have a name.
Story by: Niki Moore
