May 2024

Green and bright pops of colour

In last week’s post we told about our lovely stay at The Shire (read here). During this weekend, we did two hikes. The Shire is on the edge of the indigenous Xholora forest (*) in the Amatola Mountains, making it the perfect place from which to explore the forest.

* Xholora is also spelt Kologha by those who couldn’t pronounce the Xhosa name.

On our first hike, we walked through a small section of the indigenous forest, before following the forestry road in the Kubusi Plantation to the Anderson Dam.

The footpath starts at the big pine tree of The Shire. There is a small bridge over the river that leads into the forest.

Pine tree with pine cones at The Shire

Inside the indigenous forest

Early morning sunbeams through tall treetops

Ferns along forest footpath

Moss covered rock and different coloured leaves

Red fungi grow on a dead log

White fungi

Tree trunk with sharp thorns

After about 15 minutes of walking through the forest, we followed a narrow path that took us to the forestry road.

Forestry road in Kubusi Plantation

We decided to turn right and see if we could find Anderson Dam that Jonathan from The Shire had told us about the day before.

Canopy of trees

After a slight uphill, we reached an open section of the road where we had a partial view of the plantations in the distance.

View over plantations

Sparkling Pine branches in the sun

Following the sun through the trees

Tall Pine trees in the plantation

After following the forestry road for quite a while, we saw a sign indicating that the Lemonwoods were straight ahead and the way to Anderson Dam turned right into a densely wooded path.

We had heard the Lemonwoods were a beautiful sight, but decided to rather follow the overgrown path to Anderson Dam as we weren’t sure how far it was to the Lemonwoods (hopefully we’ll get a chance to hike to these woods on another visit).

Overgrown path to Anderson Dam

Seems like people haven’t walked here for quite some time

The pine trees look beautiful against the blue sky

We had to walk around this spider in the pathway

The road opened up a bit as we approached Anderson Dam. It’s not a big dam – in fact, it’s quite small – but there was a small waterfall across from us that transformed the area into a tranquil scene.

Waterfall and tall trees at Anderson Dam

We sat here for a while eating an apple and drinking water. We could only hear the waterfall and birds singing in the tall trees in the morning sun. It was truly one of those “aah” moments.

Anderson Dam

On the way back to the forestry road, we saw another large cobweb between the trees. There were also quite a few trees decked out in their autumn coats, while the tall pines stood out against the blue sky.

Large cobweb

Leaves in autumn colours

Such a beautiful sight

We were now quite high up the mountain and could see Stutterheim through the trees.

The town of Stutterheim below

Back on the forestry road, we looked again at the rows and rows of Pine trees that stood in such straight lines.

Rows of Pine trees in the Kubusi Plantation

Forestry road

On the way back to The Shire, it was fun to spot the delicate flowers on the ground and strange little fruits.

Small flowers close to the ground

Maybe some kind of fruit

Not sure what this is, but it’s lovely

It was now downhill to the path that would take us back through the woods to The Shire and all too soon we were back where we started.

Last bend in the road before the forest path

An arrow pointed us to the pathway leading back to The Shire

Signpost to The Shire

For the last time we saw another beautiful fungus on a tree in the forest, before we were back at the bridge that took us to the green lawn of The Shire.

Beautiful fungus in the forest

Bridge over the river to The Shire

The fairy forest, tall trees and tranquility at the Anderson Dam was lovely and we can’t wait to take you again next week on our last walk in this beautiful area. (You can read about our last walk here).