March 31, 2014

Monday Geology Picture: Mudcracks at Rondevlei

Posted by Evelyn Mervine

 

Mudcracks at Rondevlei.

Mudcracks at Rondevlei.

Yesterday my husband and I visited the Rondevlei Nature Reserve here in the Western Cape of South Africa. Rondevlei is the only place in the Western Cape where hippos live. Hippos lived in the Western Cape historically, but they went extinct in the 1700s. A few hippos were re-introduced to Rondevlei in the 1980s. We didn’t see any hippos during our walk around Rondevlei– apparently hippos are seen in the evening when they’re active. However, we did see some impressive mudcracks since the water level in the vlei or marsh is quite low at the moment. A view of some of the mudcracks is shown above.