Market Friday - Revitalising Ourselves in Nature for Less Than $2.00

Today is #MarketFriday, a project initiated by @dswigle, and this post is my contribution to this project for this week.

To learn more about this project and participate, visit today's post by @dswigle.

We have had quite a busy time over the last few months and felt the need to get away from all the hustle and bustle. Somewhere, away from everything...

In the many years that we have lived down here on the east coast of South Africa, we often considered paying a visit to Paradise Valley. It is a nature reserve and is literally a 10-minute drive from where we are currently living. We pass it on an almost daily basis and I think we got so used to it just being there, that we never took action.

Well, last weekend, we decided that Paradise Valley will be the place to go.

The reserve opens at 7h30 in the morning and closes by 16H00 in the afternoon

We still had some activities to attend to in the morning and although we planned to be at the reserve early morning, we arrived a little later than anticipated. We arrived there just after 10H00.

Approaching the reception area along the side of the building after entering through the gate.

An informative board about "your garden birds" in the reception area.

We were informed that there is an entrance fee of R17.00 per person. Thus, it was a total of R34.00 for me and my wife.

At the exchange rate of R17.96 for the USD/ZAR currency pair at the time of writing this post, it means that it cost me a total of $1.89 for the two of us. And we could spend the rest of the day there until 16h00 in the afternoon.

The reception area is an open area, almost giving the feeling of being under a lapa, with the reception office on one side.

In this area, they have a nice display that gives an indication of what you can expect from your visit to the reserve. Notice the snake skin draped along the mesh. Snakes periodically (several times per year) shed their skin. It is possible to walk in the bush and find a snakeskin (looking like a snake at first sight), but upon closer inspection, you can find that it is only the skin, and the snake is long gone.

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Walking the trails in the reserve, you stand a good chance (especially early morning) to see some wildlife in the bush, such as duiker, bushbuck, and more. Some trails are indicated as being good trails to walk if your goal is to see some wild animals.

The display gives you an idea of what you expect to see in the reserve.

Zooming in on some of these stuffed animals...

Dassie...

Blue Duiker...

This was a baby bushbuck...

Some were just statutes and are not animals that would be found in this reserve... So don't stress, you won't get charged by a rhino...lol.

Walking out of the reception area, you are welcomed by a huge picnic area.

I have to be honest, looking back from the picnic area, the reception area looks much more impressive and inviting than coming in towards it from the entrance. I wonder if they couldn't maybe move the entrance to a position from where you can approach the reception area from this side...

From where I stood, taking the next photo, the fence was to my right, where the parking area is also where our car was parked.

So, it would just be a matter of moving/relocating the gate to another spot (lower down) in the fence...

To me, it would just give a much better first impression. Compare the next photo with the 2nd photo in this post and tell me what you think...

Besides the picnic area, you can't help but to notice the river (although the water level is currently very low), flowing through this area.

Seeing that we weren't as early as we would have liked to be, we decided to head out to the waterfall, making the waterfall the focus of our visit.

Heading out on the "Waterfall Trail", a last peek towards the picnic area where a lapa is also visible if you want to spend some time here in a group.

Some typical scenes along the trail on our way to the waterfall.

Some dense, but colorful scenes too...

We came across a little side trail that leads to a viewpoint, called "Waterfall Bridge".

Besides the pillars, which might be an indication of a bridge being here sometime in the past, I don't really know where the term "bridge" fits into the scene...

We realized that we were right above the waterfall, with a beautiful view from up here and a nice little deck to the right-hand side, from where you can admire the view.

The deck provides some beautiful views, although I feel the ramp leading onto the deck can do with some serious maintenance...

Some views from standing on the deck...

Can you see the rainbow in the water in the next two photos...?

We then returned to the main trail...

We still had a small distance to go before the serious descent began to get to the bottom of the waterfall.

Then we arrived at the waterfall...

Although we didn't see other forms of wildlife, there was an abundance of birdlife. And this little fellow came real close and made us feel really welcome in his neighborhood...

Okay...I had to zoom in quite a bit... But still, I don't have one of those "monster" lenses you sometimes see on the cameras of those professional photographers... Yet, he was close enough and I think I got quite a decent photo.

We spent well over an hour down here by the waterfall and then started the walk back to the main entrance area.

We arrived at the reserve just after 10h00 in the morning. We left just after 15h00 in the afternoon. Although were there over the warmest time of day, we were moving in shaded areas 90% of the time. According to my phone, the temperature ranged from 32 degrees Celcius (on arrival) to 36 degrees Celcius at 13h00. It then came back down again to about 32 degrees Celcius by the time we left. So although it was warm and humid, moving in the shade the majority of the time, it was bearable and fun!

We spent a big part of the day (just over 5 hours) in the tranquility of nature, just enjoying every moment, and soaking in the scenes around us for less than $2.00. I don't think that's a bad deal! What do you think?

And that's it for today, folks!

Thank you for reading my post! I do appreciate it!