Hi all,
Last week I spent some time at 22 Watervalle (22 Water Falls), a small camping/holiday get away at the foot of the Porterville Mountains. While there I took a trip up the mountain to the Groot Winterhoek Moutain Reserve to see the local Disa uniflora. (While the mountain pass was nice and tarred and offered spectacular views, the road to the actual reserve was most perilous. It was a dirt road in poor condition and feared my little VW Polo would not make it out alive. It did, thankfully.)
Here are some Disa uniflora photos:
This is the scene that greeted my girl friend and I after a 30 min walk from the parking area. In spite of it being a 30 deg C day down in the valley, it was quite cool up in the mountain.
Here are some close-up shots:
This is my favourite:
If you compare these to the previous set of photo of the Disa uniflora from Table Mountain, you will some differences. Firstly, the flowers are larger and have more triangular shape which is more open (though one had a much longer shape). The colour is also a richer bright orange-red. I much prefer this form to the Table Mountain form.
The actual plants were hidden out of sight.
There were hidden below the Restio grasses that grew along the river bank. The were actually growing in the accumulated dead grass material. The flower stems of these Disa uniflora were also much longer and sturdier than the Table Mountain counter-arts. To take the photos I had to stand in the stream (about shin deep). At this depth the flowers came up to my chest, so they must have been about 2 and a ½ to 3 feet tall.
As far as a holiday it was quite pleasing. Porterville boast an excellent Shiraz wine, which it unfortunately exports. This is good news for you (but bad for me). The 2007 Porter Mill Station Shiraz is very very good. The Cabernet Sauvignon wasn’t bad either. And for $5 (R50) you can get a good size (almost 500 g) piece of sirloin steak to BBQ.
Kind regards
Last week I spent some time at 22 Watervalle (22 Water Falls), a small camping/holiday get away at the foot of the Porterville Mountains. While there I took a trip up the mountain to the Groot Winterhoek Moutain Reserve to see the local Disa uniflora. (While the mountain pass was nice and tarred and offered spectacular views, the road to the actual reserve was most perilous. It was a dirt road in poor condition and feared my little VW Polo would not make it out alive. It did, thankfully.)
Here are some Disa uniflora photos:
This is the scene that greeted my girl friend and I after a 30 min walk from the parking area. In spite of it being a 30 deg C day down in the valley, it was quite cool up in the mountain.
Here are some close-up shots:
This is my favourite:
If you compare these to the previous set of photo of the Disa uniflora from Table Mountain, you will some differences. Firstly, the flowers are larger and have more triangular shape which is more open (though one had a much longer shape). The colour is also a richer bright orange-red. I much prefer this form to the Table Mountain form.
The actual plants were hidden out of sight.
There were hidden below the Restio grasses that grew along the river bank. The were actually growing in the accumulated dead grass material. The flower stems of these Disa uniflora were also much longer and sturdier than the Table Mountain counter-arts. To take the photos I had to stand in the stream (about shin deep). At this depth the flowers came up to my chest, so they must have been about 2 and a ½ to 3 feet tall.
As far as a holiday it was quite pleasing. Porterville boast an excellent Shiraz wine, which it unfortunately exports. This is good news for you (but bad for me). The 2007 Porter Mill Station Shiraz is very very good. The Cabernet Sauvignon wasn’t bad either. And for $5 (R50) you can get a good size (almost 500 g) piece of sirloin steak to BBQ.
Kind regards
