The largest living organism in the world

Redwood trees are known as the largest living organisms on earth, some of them reach heights of over 300 feet high (the size of a football field). As a matter of fact, people that have been to a Redwood forest say that it is an awesome sight and that it will remain in your memory for as long as you live. Just when you assume that you've seen the largest tree of the forest, an even bigger one will appear around the corner. Redwoods are also known for their prolonged existence, meaning that some of the trees are hundreds or even thousands of years old. These outstanding trees are found alongside the pacific coast of Northern California where the summer fog and mild winters contrast with harsher inland climates.

The contemporary Coast Redwood is "Sequoia sempervirens". The species name is Latin which means “always green.” Coast Redwoods belong to the Taxodiaceae Plant Family, which include two other surviving Redwood species: the Giant Sequoia - "Sequoiadendron giganteum" found in Sierra Nevada, Mountains of California, and the Dawn Redwood - "Metasequoia glyptostroboides" a tree species unique to China.
 

The roots of a Redwood are extremely shallow; they grow no deeper than 10 feet, however, they spread out from the tree in every direction as far as 150 feet. By the time a few hundred years go by, the roots are so intermingled with the roots of other trees, making it impossible for a tree to fall down. By "holding hands" underground, the roots form a network allowing the trees to withstand even great storms (nevertheless, Redwoods are more defenseless to wind than fire, fierce winter storms are capable of bringing down these giants). As the roots grow out, crown root sprouting takes place. Sprouts in fact come out of the roots, out of the ground, and actually grow into the trees. New trees are often produced from sprouts which form at the base of the trunk.

Redwoods produce very small cones relative to the size of the tree. A mature Redwood tree can produce up to 100.000 cones in a year and each of these cones produce about 100 very small seeds. However, few are fertile, and fewer are capable of producing viable seedlings. Those that do survive, on the other hand, are amongst the fastest growing trees in the world.
 

Some trees have burn and char scars, recalling a tough past. Some even have huge caverns carved out of their middles due to gutting fires, but this doesn't stop them from growing; they are always full of life, making the wounds of the past seem so irrelevant. Besides the fires, some of its other enemies are the vagaries of climate change, occasional harsh storms and unfortunately, on a more immediate scale, chain saws...

The Vredefort Crater - South Africa

The Vredefort crater, also known as the Vredefort dome or the Vredefort impact Structure is a circular remnant of an impact caused by an object whose diameter was approximately 10km, which struck earth about 2 billion years ago. This amazing crater is situated in the Free State Province of South Africa, approximately 100km southwest of Johannesburg. It was named after the town of Vredefort, which is located near its center.

The world has about 130 crater structures of probable impact origin in which the Vredefort crater is among the top three. It is currently regarded as one of the largest and oldest known crater on earth. The original crater, which has now eroded away and is no longer clearly visible, was estimated to be about 250 to 300 kilometers in diameter. Vredefort´s original impact scar consists of three concentric circles of uplifted rock. They were formed by the rebound of rock below the impact site when the asteroid hit.

Initially, it was thought that the dome situated in the center of the crater was created by a volcanic explosion, but in the mid of 1990´s it was confirmed that the site was of a huge impact. Revealing shatter cones are often discovered in the bed of the close by Vaal River.

The inner circle with the measurement of 180km, can still be seen in the astonishing range of hills near Parys and Vredefort. In July 2005, this area was voted as South Africa´s seventh World Heritage site at UNESCO´s 29th World Heritage Committee meeting in Durban. South Africa´s other six World Heritage sites are Robben Island, the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park, the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape, the Cradle of Humankind, the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park and the Cape Floral Region.

The Table Mountain in Cape Town

The Table Mountain is one of the world´s most renowned sights; this remarkable landscape is a flat-topped mountain overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. The mountain forms part of the Table Mountain National Park. This spectacular landscape can be seen at times as far as 200 kilometers out to sea, the harbor of Table Bay was always easy to find because of the high sandstone block which is approximately 450 million years old (Silurian/Ordovician era). Table Mountain is 1086 meters high, it main feature is a level plateau around 3 kilometers from side to side, bordered by steep cliffs. The plateau is edged by Devil´s Peal on the left and Lion´s Head on the right. From a distance this great cliff seems unbroken, but the closer we get to it, we notice that the cliffs of the maim plateau are split by Platteklip Gorge (Flat Stone Gorge), which provides an easy and direct rise to the summit.

Hiking on Table Mountain is very popular; there are numerous trails to the summit, ranging from easy scrambles to dangerous climbs. The Table Mountain Cable-way, which was officially opened in 1929, makes it possible for visitors to reach the plateau at the top of the mountain, and also provides awesome views over the city while ascending and descending. More than 250.000 passengers use the cable-way each year.


The most famous animal on Table Mountain is the Dassie (rodent-like animal). There are also many other animals such as snakes, porcupines, mongooses, tortoises and Himalayan mountain goats. These goats are fugitive descendants from animals which escaped from Groote Schuur Zoo in 1936. The Main vegetation of the mountain is unique, an estimated 2.200 species of plants can be found on the mountain alone.


The flat top of the mountain is often covered by the famous "tablecloth" cloud, which is without a doubt, an awesome scenery. The "tablecloth" is a neat cap of cloud which, unrolls across the flat summit and drapes itself over the edges in a tidy, almost straight line. These clouds are formed when a south-easterly wind is directed up the mountain´s slope into colder air, where the moisture condenses.

The Victoria Falls

The Victoria Falls is one of the world´s most astonishing waterfalls. This lovely scenery lies on the Zambezi River which contours the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, in Southern Africa. On 16 November 1855, David Livingstone was the first-known European to see the falls and named them the Victoria Falls, in honor of Queen Victoria. The falls were formed by a deep crack in the rock which lies directly across the path of the Zambezi River; this crack was caused by the movement of the earth, millions of years ago.

The Victoria falls are renowned as one of the largest in the world; it is 1700m wide and 100m high. The falls are divided into the Devil’s Cataract (27m wide and 60m high), the Main Falls, which in turn are divided by a projecting rock (524m and 297m wide and 83m high), the Rainbow falls (550m wide and 100m high) and the Eastern Cataract (304m wide and 96m high).

During the month of April, the falls usually reach peak volume, 620 000 kiloliters a minute thrusts over the boundary of the falls. The columns of thundering spray sent up by the water have at times been sighted 80 kilometers away. Due to this amazing scenery, many years ago the Kololo tribes-people that lived along the upper reaches of the river named the waterfall “Mosi o Tunya” - the smoke that sounds, and the Matabele called it “Manza Thunqayo” – water that rises like smoke.

A beautiful rainbow can be seen during all summer hours, and sometimes even during intense moonlight. The driest months are from August to November. The game park which borders the banks of Zambezi is home to giraffes, elephants, hippos and many other animals. When tourists launch up the river by motor, they have a chance to see wildlife coming down to drink, as well as hippos and crocodiles lying around on the sand banks in the sun.
The Rain forest, which is at the edge of the falls, is full of exotic plants, they are always green and dripping wet from the spray of the falls. Even the rail-road bridge over the gorge is often drenched with spray.

There are many awe-inspiring and phenomenal places on this lovely planet, with origins that sometimes can and can´t be explained. The Victoria Fall is without a doubt, one of those places...

The Cango Caves

In South Africa there are many interesting caves, but the ones that I admire the most are the Cango Caves which can be found a few kilometers north of Oudshoorn in the Klein Karro. These beautiful caves are among the great natural wonders of the world.
The first people to discover the Cango Caves were tribes from prehistoric times. They used the entrances of the caves as a home and painted the walls with pictures of themselves hunting wild animals, however, throughout time these have been damaged. They were unable to explore far into the caves possibly because they had no access to portable light.

The secrets that were hidden within these caves were discovered many centuries later, in 1780, by a local farmer called Van Zyl, who led the first mission deep into the caves. After wondering around for a while Van Zyl discovered the first large chamber and named it after himself - “Van Zyl´s Hall”. The dimensions of this chamber are about 98m long, 49m wide and 15m high. This breathtaking entrance is decorated with a variety of amazing formations.

The Cango Caves have become one of the country’s most popular caves; they have attracted thousands of visitors from all over the world every year. The total distance of the chambers and tunnels are more than four kilometers. The areas of the Cango Caves open to the public are as shown on the below map, however, Cango Two and Cango Three, beyond the Devil´s Workshop, are closed to the visitors in order to preserves the crystalline beauty formations that are found within these outstanding chambers. 

There are two types of tours that can be done to the caves, the "Standard Tours" and the "Adventure Tours". There are areas while doing the "Adventure Tour" where you have to crawl around on your stomach and climb up steep rock formations! Can you imagine how thrilling that must be?