Opposite the entrance of Wacao is the area of the former plantation Leliënberg. Two interesting hills in that area were our target this time because there are some concentrations of candle cacti on these hills. That could mean that there were houses on that hills in the past. The Werbata maps don't have any indications of houses though.
We had permission to enter the area of Wacao to park our cars and from there we walked over the asphalt road in the direction of the first hill, the Seru Kuater Anker.
François and Fred were here in the past and they led us to the first attraction of this hike, a number of nicely decorated houses on the side of the Seru Kuater Anker, not too far from the road. These houses are abandoned and are starting to deteriorate. The roofs are largely gone but the walls of the main house are still in rather good condition. The wall of one of the other houses shows a traditional construction, so we got the impression that an old house was the basis for this newly built one. There was also furniture made from plastered stone. In one of these chairs the date 3-6-97 was carved. So these houses are only 17 years old. The walls and furniture are nicely decorated with pieces of roof tile and other attributes. All in all a nice view, a bit fairylike.
When we were looking around a person showed up. So we asked him if he knew about these buildings. He appeared to be the builder. The houses were build from scratch so apparently he has used a traditional way of constructing the walls and roofs. His name, Oswin Hansen, is visible as a signature in the walls of each of the houses.
Apparently he didn't trust us in the beginning because he showed up with a gun in his hand but soon the ice was was broken and he told us that he had built these houses and that there were small parties here in the past around a dancefloor. When we asked him about the crown that was put on one of the chairs he told us that he had several princesses to use that chair.
Close to the houses there were several impressive Palu di sia korá (Red gum trees). He told us that he had planted these and that these were less than ten years old. That seems unlikely even though he planted them as small trees and didn't grow them from seeds. But given the date of the houses (1997) an age of at least 17 years is more likely. But even then the trees are very impressive for their age.
He didn't know about any former habitation on these hills. He showed us where there was a gap in the fence so that we could continue uphill. We saw lots of gum trees in this area all planted in rows. According to Oswin the ground was 'youyou' which means as much as fertile and able to hold water for some time. That could explain why the gum trees are growing so fast.
It was not easy to get up the hill. There were lots of wabis and Prickly pears but we had even more problems with the vines of the Palu di lechi.
After a while we reached the top of the Seru Kuater Anker with a height of 126 meters. There we took a short break before we continued to the second hill, the Seru Para Mira. To reach that hill we had to descend into a roi where we found a lot of Manzaliña trees. Under these trees we rested again and ate our apples. Later we regretted this pause because Dirk got a painly red eye during lunch and 4 of the sleuths developed blisters on their arms the next day. Most probably the manzaliña trees were to blame for this even though none of us touched these trees. But it had rained in the morning and probably some of the venom was still in the air.
Also on our way to the top of this second hill (123 meters high) we didn't find any traces of habitation. Hardly any artifacts in this whole area. And the view from the top of the Seru Para Mira ("hill with a view") was disappointing because of the dense vegetation on the top.
It was already getting late so we started our descend into the roi quickly and were able to get to another asphalt road soon. From there we reached our cars quickly. The next stop was the restaurant of Dokterstuin were we celebrated Fred's birthday.
No rights can be derived from this report
In blue the track on the topographical map by Kadaster in 1993
Backside of a chair in stone - date June 3, 1997
Frontside of another chair - notice the crown in the top
Chair and one of the houses
Inside of one of the houses - traditional construction
Also the roof has a traditional construction
The outside of the main building decorated with tiles and more
Signature of the builder - Oswin Hansen
In the main building a stone bar with these bar stools
A skull as decoration
A small mirror is also present
The current inhabitants of this house
Backside of the main house
The furniture in the yard
Hetty took posession of this chair
An impressive Palu di sia korá (Red Gum tree)
The characteristic flaking off of the bark
The builder didn't trust us - notice the gun in his hand
A nice row of Gum trees
Another row of Gum trees
A very impressive Palu di sia korá
Arid landscape with a nice Gum tree
Fred, Dirk and François looking into the distance
Fungi on a branch
View from the top of the Seru Kuater Anker
To the right our next target - the Seru Para Mira
A Turk's cap cactus with many heads
A row of Manaliña trees in the roi
Aloe, a good remedy against the blisters caused by the Manzaliña
Hetty, François and Dirk taking a rest
Fred walking on top of a collapsed dry-stone wall
One of the few artifacts - part of a case bottle
View from the top of the Seru Para Mira
Back in the roi even more Aloe plants
Windows XP is no longer supported - no reason to trow it outside
A plane crashed here in the early eighties of last century
