May 2024

Fruits and Flowers of the Forest

With today’s post we end our weekend at The Shire Eco Lodge with another forest walk. (Read here about our stay at this lovely place).

In last week’s post (read here) we walked to the Anderson Dam through the Kubusi Plantation. On the morning of our departure we decided to walk in the opposite direction to see what else the forest had to offer.

Our last day at The Shire Eco Lodge

I was surprised to see numerous small spider webs on the wet grass. We carefully walked around them into the forest.

Shiny spider web in the early morning dew

We walked a short distance through the forest before rejoining the forestry road. This time we turned left and followed the road out of the Kubusi Plantation.

In the forest and then on the forestry road

Leaving the Kubusi Plantation and follow the road

I casually mentioned to Berto that this looked like a nice road to just enjoy a walk. Berto looked at me and said: “Let’s see what small details we can find on our hike this morning”. It was a great challenge, because there was eventually so much to see!

Berto found the first small details next to the road

Our hike ended up feeling like a treasure hunt. There were so many small fruits, delicate flowers and just beauty in general that time almost stood still during our hike. It was wonderful to see what we could find along the way.

Fruits of the forest

Narrowleaf firethorn (inedible for humans, but a great food source for birds)

Autumn coloured leaves

More firethorn, but this time a bit speckled

Tree lined road

I was very excited when I was able to find my first ‘treasures’ – a hairy worm that quickly found its way across the road and a beautiful autumn leaf.

My first ‘treasures’

While I was looking for detail down on the ground, Berto saw small flowers and fruits in the high shrubs along the road.

It may look like just an ordinary shrub

But on closer inspection we could see small fruits and flowers

I spotted some fragrant and bright purple flowers. After a bit of google, it seems this is an invasive species native to Brazil and Argentina. How would it have ended up here in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa? Perhaps through birds?

An invasive species (which smelled nice)

Berto noticed the same fruit we saw the day before on our hike to Anderson Dam. Apparently (if Google has it right), it is called ivy gourd and is an edible fruit. We decided not to give it a taste – our knowledge of forest fruit is far too little to know whether it is edible or not.

A forest fruit that is apparently edible

Berto was now on a roll with our treasure hunt and saw lovely autumn leaves and also more delicate flowers.

It’s autumn in South Africa

Looks like the golden everlasting/strawflower

We finally decided to turn back because, without realising, we had been walking for almost an hour and a half.

The road back to The Shire Eco Lodge

But that didn’t stop us from looking for more ‘treasures’. We were amazed that we still saw flowers that we hadn’t noticed before when we walked the same road.

The spiny Bull thistle

Beautiful trees

Our forest hike turned out to be full of surprises

Trees in a straight line

As we approached the Kubusi Plantation again, Berto noticed one last lovely flower by the side of the road.

Striking white flower

Approaching the Kubusi Plantation again

Back on the forestry road

While my stomach growled and I thought about our breakfast, Berto still spotted a treasure or two.

Tiny green tomatoes or maybe wild cherries

Colourful leaves in the forest

The treasure hunt in the forest ended when we crossed the small river to get back to our chalet at The Shire Eco Lodge.

Crossing the river

And so our weekend came to an end. We were surprised with the beauty of the area and enjoyed the tranquility. Needless to say, we will be returning to The Shire Eco Lodge for sure.