Hike along Klein Keurbooms River

This hike in Wilderness National Park follows the winding river/stream and ended up at a waterfall and swimming hole. The area around Wilderness is famous for its indigenous forests. If you don’t know what indigenous means, look it up! We've learned that South Africans can get in heated discussions about indigenous plants and trees, and there are efforts to rid certain areas of non-indigenous plants, such as pine and eucalyptus trees. In the Cape Town area, there are very few indigenous trees, though there are forests of pine and eucalyptus – a sore point for some. But in Wilderness there are indigenous forests of milkwood, yellowwood, ironwood, alder, assegai, white peach, saphron, and more. Very cool! (and hey, I used the word 'indigenous' six times in that paragraph)

A few minutes into the walk, we saw a family of baboons up on a cliffside, eating breakfast (berries and seeds) and hollering at each other. We stopped to photograph them and it sure seemed like they looked right back at us! So for the next while, we were both a bit spooked, as we kept hearing their chattering and hoots, and we wondered what we’d do if one suddenly appeared on the path! Fortunately that didn’t happen and we eventually calmed down. Yeah, fun to see from a distance but you don’t want to get close! (they have big, sharp teeth and can get aggressive with humans)




Milkwood trees don’t grow very tall and usually create dense forests. Certain vines love them as well, which is why I (Jul) had to duck my head to get through this ‘tunnel’!