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| << November30, 2004 - Turtle Essays Ezine no 113 dated 29.11.2004 |
December13, 2004 - Turtle Essays Edition no 115 dated 13.12.2004 >> |
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Turtle Essays Edition no 114 dated 6th December 2004 ** Looking for cheap airtickets to all destinations. Try us! http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=26917872&siteid=41315606&bfpage=homepage" ** In this edition: Editors Blurb Stone Age Cape Town Rooi Els ** Hi there folks! Welcome to Turtle Essays edition no 114. A special welcome to all my new readers. I hope that you will enjoy the various ezines you will receive each week. I must apologise to readers for sending you edition no 113 late but unfortunately had problems with my ISP and had no internet link from Friday till late Tuesday afternoon. Fortunately those of you who have internet most probably have similar problems from time to time and then you just have to live with them. We'll hold thumbs for this weekend. Cape Town schools closed on Friday for the summer holidays and from now until Christmas you won't find parking at any beach or shopping centre around town. On the sporting front our cricketers lost the second cricket test against India and will be slaughtered when they get home as usual. The rugby players have finished their tour of the UK with mixed fortunes having lost two tests out of four. They are now in Argentina where they are due to play on Saturday and after that will fly home for a deserved rest. We wish them well. That's enough from me for this week. See you all soon. Geoff Fairman ps Visit the web version to see some of the photos I have uploaded with this ezine. Here is the link. Http://www.turtlesa.com/ezine114.html ** Stone Age Cape Town. Cape Town and its surroundings have just become more interesting. If you look at the Table Mountain range and the Hottentots Holland Range in the east you can see that there is a vast valley in between them that at some time in the past was covered by water. Table Bay and False Bay would have been one body of water with Table Mountain and the Cape Peninsula being an island. When the waters receded the land appeared and left us with a large valley which has become known as the Cape Flats. The soil on this plain is sandy as the bottom of a shallow bay would have been if covered by sea water for any length of time. Experts say that the inland lakes found on the Cape Flats are leftovers of the bay that once covered the area. It's all very interesting when one looks at the history and the discoveries made by archaeologists over time. Recently however things have hotted up again on the archaeology front when some divers who were exploring wreck sites in Table Bay discovered a stone age axe in the sand in Table Bay. This has lead them to believe that Table Bay must have once been dry land. Can you imagine Table Bay dry and Robben Island being a small hill in the middle of the valley which forms Table Bay. If Table Bay were dry land then False bay would also have been dry land the experts say. Apparently during the ice age water levels were 100 metres lower than they are today . That being the case the Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland mountain ranges would have been mountainous areas on an otherwise flat plain where wild animals would have roamed. Evidence from other discoveries in the Peninsula shows that pre-historic man would have roamed the plains hunting the wild animals that lived there. The discovery of a stone age axe in the middle of Table Bay confirms that at some stage in the history of the Cape, Table Bay must have been dry land. Of course as I see it someone could have used rocks to anchor their boat in Table Bay without knowing that the rock was a stone age implement. However, all of this has created much interest for archaeologists who have now set out to search for more underwater evidence of pre historic man roaming the land that is now under the waters of False Bay. To do this they have decided to explore the underwater caves along the False Bay coastline. These of course would have been on dry land a 100,000 years ago when the stone age man roamed the area. The only place to look for caves would be along the cliff faces of the Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland mountains on the eastern side of False Bay. To date a semi submerged cave has been discovered near Cape Point and has been earmarked for further exploration. Archaeologists are hoping to find evidence of pre historic man in the floor of the caves. We will have to wait and see what happens when they start their exploration in 2005. I'll keep you informed! Geoff Fairman ** Rooi Els Rooi Els is a small village on the east coast of False Bay surrounded by some of the mountain peaks that make up the Hottentots Holland Mountain range. The village is built alongside the Rooi Els river and under a large overhanging rock formation that reaches hundreds of metres into the air. Being in a wilderness area there is a lot of wildlife to be seen. Other than some obnoxious baboons which raid the houses of the residents from time to time there are plenty of birds as well. Many of the unutilised plots in the area are covered with fynbos and I suspect many have snakes such as the cobra and puffadders living on them. Other residents of Rooi Els are the bright blue and brown rock lizards which live among the rocks and can be seen sunning themselves in the midday sun. They look like statues and only move away when one gets too close. Rooi Els has grown up in the teeth of the south east gales that blow there in summer. Sometimes the wind is so strong that it knocks walls of newly constructed buildings over. Many homeowners have chosen plots high up on the mountain slopes so as to have unadulterated views out over False Bay. The coastline in the immediate vicinity of Rooi Els is very rocky although there is a lovely bay with a safe beach for swimmers on the northern side where the Rooi Els river flows into the sea. Fishing is a popular pastime as there are many cliffs and rocky outcrops from where anglers can cast into deep water. In certain instances anglers have to climb down sheer cliffs to get to the fishing spots and if they are lucky drag their catch back up the hill to their vehicles. The eastern shoreline of False Bay is very dangerous as it is often hit by freak waves which well up from nowhere and can wash the unsuspecting angler off his perch. Over the years many anglers have lost their lives and their families have erected crosses on the mountain slopes near to the place where they lost their lives. That however does not scare off others as you will find many anglers fishing off the rocks when the conditions for fish look good. Rooi Els has the added benefit that it is built in beautiful surroundings. Clarence Drive from Gordon's Bay has some fantastic scenery as you will see when you drive along it. In some places the mountains drop straight down into the sea and in others there are gentle slopes covered by fynbos. False Bay is normally a lovely shade of blue and the water around Rooi Els can be anything from green to blue. For those people who love a walk on the wild side but yet not too far from town Rooi Els is the place to visit. There are walks along the beachfront through sand dunes and the fynbos. Exploring some of the rocky outcrops that rise above the water of the many small inlets and even climbing the rock that hangs over the village are pastimes to enjoy when visiting Rooi Els. Next time you visit Cape Town stop off at Rooi Els before continuing your drive around the coastline to Hermanus. We would love to see you there. Geoff Fairman ** Turtle Travels new blog is online now. Topic : Red tide hits the beaches of Ysterfontein See the photos of the tide which looks like an oil slick http://turtleessays.blogspot.com If you have not visited this blog before, do so as there are some unique photos on site. Your comments will be appreciated. ** Like to have your own rose garden. Find out how to do it from an expert. Here is his link: http://hop.clickbank.net/?brerrabbit/mcplants ** Lotto Loser? Change your luck today Give yourself a winning chance http://hop.clickbank.net/?brerrabbit/shaneomac2 ** Please read the disclaimer at http://www.turtlesa.com/Disclaimer.html See you all soon Geoff Fairman ** |
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| << November30, 2004 - Turtle Essays Ezine no 113 dated 29.11.2004 |
December13, 2004 - Turtle Essays Edition no 115 dated 13.12.2004 >> |
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