Seru Largu Rif 20140320 020 smallLast week we were unable to walk along the whole South-Western cliff of the Seru Largu in the area of the former plantation Rif St. Marie, currently part of the Coral Estate resort. So on Thursday March 20, 2014 a small group of the Archaeology Sleuths went back for a second visit. Karel Aster was our guest for this hike. A bit confusing with two people in the group with a similar sounding name and we came up with several alternative names to keep them apart but none really sticked.

Once again we parked most of our cars in the parking lot at the gate of the Coral Estate resort and from there we went with two cars to the parking lot close to the Seru Largu.

Because Karel (Aster) was not with us last time, we decided to start by going to the well that we discovered last time. From there we walked in a rather straight line to the location where we got last time. Fred had made a waypoint last time so we could follow the directions from his GPS. And to be honest, without the GPS it would have been difficult to find this location. At a certain point we came at the cliff, at least that is what it looked like. It appeared to be a very large rock with a kind of labyrinth behind it formed by a number of fallen rocks. But the GPS showed clearly that we hadn't reached the point yet where we stopped last time. So once again a GPS for this kind of trips proved very valuable.

We pauzed at the same place as last time and it was at this location that we again heard the Kinikini (a small falcon). The bird was sitting in a tree on top of the cliff. At the foot of the cliff just under that tree a dead Kinikini was lying. It was there also last week. Is the other bird mourning or is it just by chance that the bird is sitting there in the tree?

We continued our hike along the cliff. Carel (de Haseth) found a large abri (open cave) where we took a rest. In the ceiling of this abri we spotted some red color about the same teint as what we have seen in Indian paintings. Karel (Aster) saw some structure in one of the spots. But a similar spot somewhere else in the ceiling looked to me more like some form of lichen.

Farther along our path we came at a location where a giant piece of rock broke off of the cliff and landed on top of another rightstanding piece of rock to create a large bridge. There were stalactites on both rocks so this happened quite some time ago, but it showed once again that this is not a place where you want to be during an earthquake.

About halfway from our starting point to the most Western point of the Seru Largu I saw a feasible route to the top of the cliff. Fred, Karel (Aster) and I decided to try this while the others continued lower along the cliff. We were able to reach the top rather easy. The top of the Seru Largu is flat and has a rather open vegetation. Maybe because of the wind. We walked to the corner and found out why so many pieces of this rock broke off. There are large gaps in the rock surface. In fact the most Western part of the cliff seems only loosely connected to the remainder of the Seru Largu. The gap was so wide that we couldn't cross it. We had to go more inland to find a place where the gap was narrow enough to jump over it.
We had a nice view on the saliña, the V-shaped dam along the Southern side of the saliña and on the opposite side of the saliña the ruin of the plantation house Rif. St. Marie.

We descended and joined the others on our way to the saliña and from there we went back to where the two cars were parked. It was an intense hike with lots of thorns from the Prickly pear. We felt our thighs because we had to lift our feet high to step over the dry Indigo plants. A good exercise!

  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_001In blue today's track, in red last week's track
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_002The well
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_003The tower that carried the windmill in the top
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_004A fungus on a tree
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_005the same fungus seen from below
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_006Indian Carel de Haseth in his cave
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_007Palu di sia blanku (Gum tree)
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_008The steep rock wall darkened by moss from the water that ran down
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_009The fossilized water drops are still visible
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_010Tree on top of the cliff
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_012Fred takes his apple break higher up
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_013Carel is joining him
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_014This is what they are looking at, a small falcon (kinikini)
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_016Fresh green leaves even in the dry period
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_018One of the many small openings that we had to go through
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_019Carel has made it through this opening
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_020A giant rock fell down on top of another one
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_021From the stalactites we can conclude that this happened quite some time ago
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_022A large cavern
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_023Red color on the ceiling; indian painting or natural?
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_025Another red spot on the ceiling; in my opinion this is not a painting
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_026Time for a break
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_027Fred reaches the top of the cliff
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_028Karel Aster follows him
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_030View on the V-shaped dam from the top of the cliff
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_031Fred is taking an panoramic picture
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_032Karel and Fred on the most Western part of the Seru Largu
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_033The V-shaped dam from ground level
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_034View on the most Western point of the Seru Largu
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_035The ruin of plantation house Rif St. Marie; to the left a kite surfer
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_036This rock is almost completely underminded by the water
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_037And also here, the 'rare' Mammillaria mammillaris
  • Seru_Largu_Rif_20140320_038Fresh green plants near the saliña