Last 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!
In blue today's track, in red last week's track
The well
The tower that carried the windmill in the top
A fungus on a tree
the same fungus seen from below
Indian Carel de Haseth in his cave
Palu di sia blanku (Gum tree)
The steep rock wall darkened by moss from the water that ran down
The fossilized water drops are still visible
Tree on top of the cliff
Fred takes his apple break higher up
Carel is joining him
This is what they are looking at, a small falcon (kinikini)
Fresh green leaves even in the dry period
One of the many small openings that we had to go through
Carel has made it through this opening
A giant rock fell down on top of another one
From the stalactites we can conclude that this happened quite some time ago
A large cavern
Red color on the ceiling; indian painting or natural?
Another red spot on the ceiling; in my opinion this is not a painting
Time for a break
Fred reaches the top of the cliff
Karel Aster follows him
View on the V-shaped dam from the top of the cliff
Fred is taking an panoramic picture
Karel and Fred on the most Western part of the Seru Largu
The V-shaped dam from ground level
View on the most Western point of the Seru Largu
The ruin of plantation house Rif St. Marie; to the left a kite surfer
This rock is almost completely underminded by the water
And also here, the 'rare' Mammillaria mammillaris
Fresh green plants near the saliña
