On Thursday, June 5, 2014 we wanted to hike from the Seru Gracia to the Seru Bosman via the Seru Batata and a nameless mountain. The distance was only 1.7 kilometers but we expected that we would be unable to come back at the Seru Gracia in time. Luckily we got help from the park rangers. We went with two of our cars and a truck of the rangers to the Seru Bosman where we parked our cars. From there the park ranger brought us with his truck to our starting point, the Seru Gracia. In this way we would have to walk the trip only in one direction. And that appeared to be a good decision because it took us a full 4 hours to reach our cars. A clear indication of the difficulty of this hike.
We descended from the Seru Gracia into the valley between this mountain and the next one, the Seru Batata. A very remarkable thing happened during that descent. We walked in this region once before and suddenly François said that according to him we were very close to where we found the rare Anthurium plant during that previous trip. And indeed he walked us straight to the plant. without the help of a GPS and a waypoint. A remarkable memory. Impressive!
We walked on top and sometimes along a dry-stone wall reasonably easy to the top of the Seru Batata where François found a Kadaster measuring point. There we took a rest. A small group went ahead to the following top while the rest fell behind and got separated from the front runners. But in the end we regrouped at the top of the next (nameless) mountain. From there we agreed to stay together as a group.
The last part to the Seru Bosman did look very difficult with a dense vegetation but luckily after some deliberation we found a route that was reasonably easy. Close to 1 PM we reached our cars.
Along the route from the Seru Gracia we found a lot of blooming plants. In the last two weeks some rain had fallen and that was enough to get a lot of plants blooming.Strangely enough we could still see parts of the Christoffel park that are a lot dryer and thus still looking brownish.
Not an easy hike but the beautiful flowers made it all worthwhile.
No rights can be derived from this report.
Our track on the Kadaster map
View from the Seru Gracia; somewhere in the far distance are our cars parked
We start our descent from the Seru Gracia
Beautiful yellow flowers of the Byrsonima crassifolia
View on the side of the Seru Gracia with Sabalpalms
Several kinds of moss form a nice miniature landscape
This field of Anthurium had better times during our previous visit
The border wall
Eddy and Carel walking over the ridge
On top of the Seru Batata we find this Kadaster measuring point
View on the Christoffel mountain with the Piedra Mulina to the right
Another yellow flower
Carel is taking pictures of that yellow flower
Sabalpalm; in the background our target
The yellow flowers of the Brasia
Detail of the Brasia flower
These ground bromeliads have a different color; probably because of the drought
Very special flowers of the Capparis tenuisiliqua
Flower of the Kedebèshi (Cynophalla linearis)
A Tilandsia attached to a tree
Even the Wabi looks nice
Young leaves
Flowers of the Bara-tai (Samyda dodecandra) smell like perfume
A brasia
Fred and Eddy on top of the nameless mountain; the last stop before the Seru Bosman
The Seru Gracia where we came from
This orchid is still not blooming
Someone was here before us and was thirsty
Moss on a tree
The last break before we go to the Seru Bosman where our cars are parked