Day 473 - A special month indeed.

Dit is die maand Oktober! Die mooiste, mooiste maand!
Dan is die dag so helder, so groen is elke aand,
so blou en sonder wolke die hemel heerlik bo,
so blomtuin vol van kleure die asvaal ou Karoo...

So writes one of our most famous Afrikaans poets, C Louis Leipold. This interesting link will tell you a little more about him. The poem talks about how beautiful the month of October is in our part of the world, with bright cloudless days and carpets of flowers creating natural gardens in an area that is normally seen as semi desert...

This year October in South Africa has not disappointed. I can't remember when last we've had such magnificent displays of wild flowers - amongst all the gloom and doom of the world, I am experiencing this as a special gift from above!

The focus of my post today is on all the amazing little detours I've walked since my last post though, and I think the flowers deserve a post dedicated, in pictures, all to themselves!

So where to begin...

My Thursday hikes have been few and far between because we've been away quite a bit but here are some of the pictures I took at Cape Point last week.

Earlier this week we spent two nights at a game reserve in the northern part of the country, compliments of my very special friend, Di. This was the sunrise on the first morning...

After the game reserve, we headed down to Ladismith where my husband did 80 kilometers on his mountain bike in the annual Seweweekspoort Mountain Bike Challenge. This is the start of the race - set in one of the most spectacular parts of our country.

This little flower below is known as the Chinese Lantern (Nymania Capensis). At this time of the year it adds colour to the otherwise rather bleak landscape along the main routes leading from Cape Town to Oudshoorn, situated in the Little Karoo. Impossible to drive past without taking a picture! To read more - click here.

Finally, two of the highlights of the last couple of weeks. The first was meeting Sonja van Rhyn and all her amazing friends. I recently wrote about Sonja and the fact that she was diagnosed with MSA just over a year ago. We celebrated global MSA awareness day by joining Sonja for a walk along the beachfront in her hometown and later that evening people all over the world lit candles - again to raise awareness. I have been touched by this amazing woman and the special people in her life.

I share these two pictures with you here but will be doing a post dedicated to Sonja, in the near future.





Photo: Laurette van der Merwe



Last but not least - we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary earlier this month.

What more can I say - cheers to the next 30!