Pondoland C.R.E.W. Blog: Oribi Gorge - Baboon's View and The Mziki Trail

Our Thursday was unusually quiet in its gathering and Gail and Tracy found themselves with their teacher, Dorothy. We had decided that she could decide where she'd like to botanize and we were to follow wherever she wished. This was her day as there were so few of us as others had events and other commitments.

We headed up to Orbi Gorge, neither Gail nor Tracy had ever done the Mziki trail which starts at the Oribi KZN Wildlife huts as one enters into the reserve. Dorothy had insisted that we do the Baboon's View Trail first which does a loop as the views where spectacular and the grassland had been burnt and new flowers were bursting up in Spring.

Baboon's View

Graderia scabra

Gerbera ambigua

Towering 2m tall was the soft leaf of the Plectranthus barbatus.

Euphorbia tetragona

We were hesitant as we would have rather Dorothy have stayed with us and since our pace was tortoise like she didn't have to be the hare but she wanted us to enjoy it and her instruction was that we would get onto the Mziki Trail and catch us with her. She'd wait for us at the sign on the road before it leads one up onto the plateau. We watched Dorothy head into the forest and we went to inspect what plants where growing. At the hutted camp we came across two gentlemen who were hikers and Gail being rather like her father made polite conversation on passing and we meandered on but we kept bumping into them on the trail which left us walking a little faster. They quizzed us about a plant and we were able to answer their questions and then paced ourselves a little more quickly once again.

Burchellia bubalina

Tracy and the Aloe candelabrum's

Halleria lucida

Mimusops obovata

Ghaul's on the Mimusops obovata

Mimusops obovata on the forest floor

Time can pause when botanizing and photographing and we were at one stage ahead of our "friends" and then seeing that we were going to end up bumping into them again saw a trail which looked as if it were at the start and decided to take a short cut down the embankment which frightened a scrub hare which left it bolting up through the Gerbera's and Graderia's, we felt chuffed that we had eventually lost our chatter-box friends. This was a serious day; we were here to botanise!

Ischnolepis natalensis (Petopentia natalensis)

Ischnolepis natalensis - flower

Clivia robusta

Tracy and Gail really observed what was around them bouncing off names without having any of our teachers around. We wondered where Dorothy was and thought she was walking rather fast. We kept walking and we still didn't come across any signs of her. Gail had left her phone in the car as there wasn't any signal in Oribi. Rule number one, don't do that. Tracy's phone rang. There was a signal bar, it was a worried Dorothy. Where were we? It was now after one and we would normally all be sitting together having our lunch and admiring the view quietly around us. We told her we were on the trail trying to catch up. Gail saw a Protorhus longifolia that she had photographed hours before and then had a déjà vu moment and we realised that we had done the lower loop of the Baboon's view. By charging down the hill to avoid small talk we had missed the sign that said "Mkizi" by literally 20m and we were doing our second loop but in the forest!

The sign Tracy and Gail missed when seeing a path from above and ending up taking another.

Our teacher was worried, we were worried and we scurried back as fast as the hare and found the trail we should have taken. The forest edge is very steep and very slippery and so one can not exactly do a trail run. The floor's carpet was thick in Protorhuis longifolia, Combretum and Tarchonanthus trilobus leaves.

Beautiful hues of rusty red's lying on the forest floor

Leaves on a forest floor.

Tarchonanthus trilobus

Tarchonanthus trilobus in camouflage

"Eye's" on a rock camouflaged. I'm watching you.

A tree giant, head in first. Bottom's up. Aaaaah! I'm stuck!

We now stopped botanizing in order to catch up. Dorothy was not at the sign where she said she'd be when we got the phone call. We started climbing up the steep hill. One just has to admire our teacher being in her 80's and the height that she had reached on her walking sticks.

All great rocks lead upwards.

Right at the top their our teacher was! We made as much noise as excited baboon babies being united with their family. We ate our lunch and began to botanize once more.

Smilax anceps

Sansieveria hycinthoides

Indigofera refracta

Polygala macowaniana

Peddiea africana

Time was not on our side in the end and knowing how steep it was knowing it was going to be a challenge getting back down and Gail had to get to her car before the gates where locked, so she left Tracy walking back with Dorothy and Gail in quick steps went through the forest and up the hill to fetch her car and as she drove up the road in perfect time Dorothy and Tracy arrived and simply stepped into the car. We got home with the setting sun, all a little frazzled and remembering that it is never good for a group to split.

Rule number two: Never take a short cut because it will end up taking you twice as long and don't presume anything. In the end there were no disasters only lessons learnt.