Ben in the Veldt

Monday when the labourers were cutting the firebreak, I took a walk with my dogs into the veldt and down to bottom gorge. On my hike I found someone’s driver's licence which was later linked to a house break in about a month ago. This was all the proof that we need to link the people living in this green belt to crime in the area.

Today I took my neighbour Pieter and his dog Ben to show him the place where I found the driver's licence, this time we went another route and found lots more such as a Congolese passport and a doctor's South African Medical Association Practice identity. This new evidence links to a house breaking in November last year.

A badly damaged Protea Tree

I have found out that the source of the stream below which is just up this gorge is deemed holy water to some religious group who come and pray here in the hills and get baptised often in these waters. This is now serious as criminals coming into area and operating from the safety of the gorge with its many escape routes, are mixing in with the pious. How are we going to separate the religious and the criminals?

Thank goodness, signs of life in what seemed to be a dead Protea Tree

Along with the old prospecting tunnels that are being used for living and I hope not, illegal gold mining, indigenous trees are being cut down at an alarming rate in this gorge for fire wood, soon there won’t be much left.

While standing overlooking the gorge, what looked like a juvenile Black Eagle flew up the gorge below us looking for the dassies which had already scrambled to safety ahead of the noisy humans. Dassies are the local word for the Rock Hyrax which were once plentiful in this area and are the main source of food for the Black Eagles.

Please note that I am planning a photowalk in the area along with the Joburg Photowalkers in celebration of my 50th birthday which is coming up next month. This is part of Johannesburg that many don't know about, and the exposure that the Photowalkers can bring is priceless as I found out that the council wants to rehabilitate the hiking trails below.