South Africa's Cape Fold Belt viewed through a car window, September 2011.

This week’s Monday Geology Picture shows some geology viewed through a car window. Specifically, the picture shows a glimpse of the magnificently folded and twisted sandstones of the Cape Fold Belt in South Africa. I snapped this picture as my husband and I drove along the N1 road on our way from Cape Town to Oudtshoorn for a long weekend trip. One of my favorite things to do is drive around South Africa with my husband. We often encounter interesting rocks, animals, and plants along the way… and we often stop to take a closer look at them. Even when we don’t stop, I often take pictures through the car windows, such as the picture above. The only reason we didn’t stop for a picture at that moment was that I had already snapped a few dozen roadside pictures of similar rocks. However, I couldn’t resist a quick shot through the window.

One of the things I’m really looking forward to after I finally finish up this PhD of mine is a roadtrip across South Africa. Sometime next year, my husband and I plan to take a couple of weeks vacation and drive from Cape Town to KwaZulu-Natal, where we plan to visit some friends who live in the Drakensberg (note that Drakensberg means “Dragon Mountains”– how could I not want to visit there?). We plan to stop plenty along the way, investigating some local geology of course! I imagine I will also snap many more pictures through car windows.