On a beautiful warm autumn Saturday morning we decided to take everyone on a picnic at nearby Helderberg Nature Reserve in Somerset West. The reserve stretches up one side of the beautiful Helderberg Mountain and offers the hiker an assortment of trails of varying lengths suited for all ages.
We went on a short walk with our three grandsons and proceeded to have our picnic down at the bottom end of the reserve under the oak trees next to a bubbling stream. We were all enjoying ourselves so much that at first we didn’t notice the smoke at the foothill of the mountain. Soon it became apparent that there was a serious fire, as the volume of smoke grew fanned by a strong wind!
We became worried when we saw many ranger fire vehicles race towards the fire and also learned that the reserve gates had been closed to the public. We were stuck inside! The fire was raging across the reserve but not towards us – it was burning up the entire mountainside towards the peak!
The boys thought it was an exciting adventure especially when the helicopters arrived towing their enormous buckets of water to dump on the fire to stop it spreading towards the houses. We were right under their path as they flew overhead and could feel the spray coming from water that spilt from their loads.
The fire on this particular day destroyed many thousands of hectares of beautiful fynbos not to mention some buildings as well.
Image Credit: My Own Blog, Video and Snap Photo.
