This week, the worst storm in thirty years hit Cape Town and the Western Province wreaking havoc on the peninsula and inland.  How crazy to go from drought conditions to flooding; with snow on the inland mountains and fires down the coast in the Knysna area.  Galeforce winds gusting up to 100km/hour, uprooted trees, damaged roofs and houses.  The shack dwellers in the informal settlements were hardest hit and nine deaths have been reported.

During a lull between advancing squall lines and the torrential rain we managed to get out to check the surrounding area and to the Good Hope Nature reserve to see how the animals were faring.   The wind gusts were ferocious and most animals were hunkered down or had found shelter out of the wind.   A most unusual scene was a Cape Mountain zebra galloping along a beach to get to the lee of the land.

Opportunistic baboons were out foraging mostly taking advantage of the moist soil to dig for corms/bulbs while the Plateau Road troop appeared to be finding grubs in an area where there were old wood piles.

The wild sea conditions were truly a sight to behold, the breaking waves on the Atlantic side came thundering through with such powerful thrust that huge banks of sea foam built up way above the tide line.  We’ve been warned that not much rain fell in the catchment areas and the dam levels remain critically low.

The sandy beach

For other gallery pics, check out the EWN site  – http://ewn.co.za/2017/06/07/gallery-the-cape-of-storms