It's Beautiful, But Be Responsible!

Today's photos were taken during our recent visit to the Cumberland Nature Reserve, just outside Pietermaritzburg, west of Durban, South Africa.

As various trails start from the small waterfall in the Riet Spruit, including the one we followed, I want to share my last photos of the waterfall area today. My next post will be scenes away from the waterfall.

At the starting point is this information board where you can see a map and choose the trail you want to follow. As you can see, it is clearly marked with "YOU ARE HERE", and from there you can decide where you want to go.

We first crossed this bridge to view the waterfall from the opposite side.

I took the next photo while standing on the bridge, with the Riet Spruit passing through underneath me on its way toward the edge. From there it tumbles down, finding its way to the bottom of the gorge.

This notice pops up frequently in this area before you start following any of the trails...

These signs are there for a purpose and should be taken seriously.

First, there are spaces such as what I will show in my next two photos. It looks beautiful and inviting, and it is indeed. You just want to go there, sit down and enjoy nature. And that is exactly what we have done. I also used the space, standing on the rock in front of the bench, to take a lot of photos of the waterfall. The view of the waterfall is spectacular from there!

If you would like to see some of the photos I took from there, you can see them here.

But, can you imagine a child playing around there without adult supervision?

That is as far as the area and heights are concerned.

But secondly, you also have wildlife roaming freely in the area.

Yes, they do not have the "big five", but many of the species they have listed are big animals and it would be very irresponsible to allow a child to move around freely in this area.

Here is a list of animals that can be found in the reserve. It is a free resource that can be downloaded from their website.

You will notice that the crocodile also appears on this list of animals found in the reserve.

What you won't see on the list though, is the African Rock Python which can also be found in the reserve.

The next image is not my own but is shown in the gallery of the website of Cumberland Nature Reserve.

African Rock Python


In the next photo, I found a dry spot from where I took this shot while standing just above the waterfall.

In the last two photos for today, I turned around and focused on the beauty of the water coming toward me from behind.

And that's it for today, folks!

Thank you for reading my post! I do appreciate it!

NOTE:
Unless stated otherwise, all images in this post are my own.