Tag: postaday

The Cape Doctor

The Cape Doctor is the local name for the strong south-eastern wind – also known as the South-Easter – that blows from False Bay and funnels through to Cape Town and Blouberg during the hot summer months.  It is said to clear all pollution in the city and across the Cape Flats, offering an amazing clear sky and view of the Mother City.

enveloped 2The wind picks up moisture from False Bay and pushes it up against the flanks of Table Mountain, creating clouds (and rain) along the eastern slope. This phenomenon is locally known as ‘the Table cloth’: the top of Table Mountain is enveloped  in a huge cloud, dripping over the mountainside.

enveloped

Geology of Cornwall

The rocks of Cornwall have an amazing story to tell. They have been on a journey of 8,000 miles in just 400 million years. This journey has included tropical seas, deserts, volcanic eruptions and hot granites, mineral vapours rich in tin and copper and ever-changing climate and sea levels. (Cornish Geology)

A true force of nature.

Cornish geology typically consists of black, folded slates and pale grey, blocky granites. But there are exceptions:

Polzeath Beach (north coast on the Camel estuary): Stripy slate formations in purple and pale greens.

polzeath (8)

Kynance Beach (south-west on the Lizard peninsula): Serpentinite cliffs are made up of dark green and red rocks, polished by thousands of years of crashing waves to look like shiny snakeskin.

kynance (7)

Up on the cliffs by Chapel Porth on the north coast the rocks were lighter and redder.

And at Boscastle (north coast, north Cornwall) I was intrigued by huge lumps of marble-like granite rocks along the pathway and on tops of Cornish stone walls.