October 14, 2013

Monday Geology Picture: Snowy South African Mountains

Posted by Evelyn Mervine

Snowy mountains 1.

A snowy mountain landscape along the N2 highway in the Western Cape, South Africa.

This past winter was fairly cold here in South Africa. Somewhat unusually, many of the tops of the mountains in the Western Cape were periodically dusted with snow. There was even snow on Table Mountain in Cape Town.

During a recent backpacking trip along the Tsitsikamma Trail, my friends and I experienced some cold night-time temperatures although there was no snow in the Tsitsikamma region. However, when we were driving back to Cape Town after the hike, we noticed several snowy peaks in the distance. The picture above was taken a couple of hours outside of Cape Town along the N2 highway. I’ve seen snow before in the Western Cape, but this year’s snow was more impressive than what I saw previously.

The weather has been warmer recently, so hopefully that means that spring has finally arrived here in the Western Cape!