|
|
Article: Thinking big in the South African bush: with an astonishing variety of habitats and flora and fauna, Baviaanskloof Protected Area is one of the world's most diverse regions. Charles Leftwich reports on an innovative attempt to incorporate the area into an extensive new 'mega-reserve'.(SOUTH AFRICA)
- Article from:
- Geographical
- Article date:
- August 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Circle Publishing Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Standing atop one of the highest points in the Kouga range, all I can see in every direction are the convoluted curves, gulfs and crowns of mountains. There is no sound, only the sense of the movement of cloud as two patterns interplay, those of height and chasm and of light and shadow. Below the crags of the mountain tops are slopes covered in dense thicket, others clad in grass or fynbos ('fine bush'). On barren rock faces, tortured red-sandstone folds testify to the geological upheaval that followed the break-up of Gondwanaland and that formed the four parallel ranges that make this area unlike anywhere else on Earth.
This is the Baviaanskloof Protected Area, ...