15 August 2010

Silvermine Waterfall & around Maiden Peak

Date: 14 August 2010

Location: Silvermine, east gate

Walkers: Michele, Dorothy & Helen

*** Route plotted here ***

Other walks starting from this spot here and here.



We took the main road into Silvermine, to the right of Wolfkop.




There seemed to be a fair bit of water flowing down the falls.



We turned off the road and descended down the stepped path to reach the top of the falls. Lots of bushy vegetation grows on these sheltered slopes.






This is a fantastic spot to view the valley below.




We could see the water gushing over the edge of the falls in a couple of places, but as the wind was blowing up the valley, getting close meant risking getting wet with spray.



Growing in the sandy soil were Romulea rosea in pale pink and white.




Once we had rejoined the road we turned right and continued on.



This route took us around Maiden Peak.




Behind was western Silvermine looked lovely in the afternoon sun.



We could also see down to Noordhoek and Chapman's Peak.



Our road curved to the left, round Maiden Peak. We kept on, climbing steadily. Bit of a trudge!




There was a fair bit of fynbos in flower in this valley, especially mimetes.




We took a path left and followed this back to the road, thereby completing our circle around Maiden Peak. We walked swiftly as the wind had got up and it was rather chilly.



As we got over the rise we could see why: a cold front had rolled in and dark clouds were rushing in. It was a quick walk back to our waiting car.



.

1 comment:

Firefly the Travel Guy said...

Looking at these pics one would never think that this is so close to the heart of a city the size of Cape Town.