After the devastating Cape Town fires my friend shared a blog post called Notes from a Botanist. In the article, a botanist addressed the loss of plant, animal and insect life post-fire. The writer told us that there is life after fire and that we mustn’t despair, all is not lost. Considering we’ve just celebrated Easter weekend, a time for renewal and rebirth, I thought I would go up the mountain and see for myself if indeed, there is life in the ashes.

I had a late night last night on Sunday night but wanted to head out for a quick evening walk, just to take in some fresh air and enjoy the last of the weekend. Mr Love and I decided to go over Ou Kaapse Weg to see if there truly was any life after fires.

When driving up the hill, it’s shocking to see how much has been burnt. The distinct smell of charred wood still lingers in the air. The road signs were burnt brown with many peeling. We pulled into the Silvermine entrance, but the area is closed due to being rehabilitated so we just walked around the entrance area without going past the booms.

The scene is very dramatic. A world of black, charcoal, grey, silver, burnt landscape.

The thing that really shocked and upset me the most was the sight of fresh beer bottles left to…what? Decompose in the area? As if the fires hadn’t caused enough damage, you can always trust humans to act like pigs and add insult to injury. Shout out to these *ssholes. (Sorry, not sorry, to swear but this kind of behaviour really hits an irritation nerve with me. So disappointing. Disgusting.)

“…Nature’s resilience didn’t fail to impress…”

Out of the cracked earth and charred stones, grow tiny little green shoots piercing up through the desolate ground. Ants crawl around gathering bits while seeds fly off burnt flower cones.