Fire

The news recently has been dominated by the massive wildfires in Arizona,  the dire floods in the Midwest.  I look at the images, humbled (yet again) by the power of the elements.  Humbled, and inspired also, by the way so many people pick themselves up after such disasters and press on to recreate their lives.

Nature does too .... regenerate, press on. 

I was reminded of this in South Africa when the Helderberg Mountain which rises behind my house caught fire early one Saturday morning in April.  The winds were dragon fierce.  The natural fynbos tinder dry.  The helicopters hauling seawater stood no chance.  The fire claimed much of the mountain range -- racing through the kloofs and over the ridges of the Nature Reserve,  and then beyond -- across vineyards, flaring in thatched roofs, leaving charred skeletons of dwellings at the edge of Somerset West.

Here are some photos of the Helderberg Nature Reserve before the fire. 

My husband, Graham and daughter, Julia walking in the Reserve

Protea in the Reserve

King Protea

Looking from the Reserve towards False Bay. Various Fynbos in the foreground

View of the Helderberg from the other side. Vineyards at its base.

And then came the fire. My walking group from Helderberg Village set off into the Reserve almost a month later to view the devastation, to note the signs of regeneration.

The fire bored right down in this trunk

This slope would have been  covered in fynbos

Protea.  The seeds remain dormant until fire triggers germination

The green in the photo above is masses of Watsonia plants emerging from the charred slopes.   All this in less than a month!! Fire stimulates Watsonia flowering and seed production. 

Next spring this will be an incredible sight.

In the Pink

 These  photos were taken a couple of  years ago after a small fire burned one section 

of a slope.  Next spring the entire mountain side will look like this!!!!

After devastation, hope springs eternal.