River View Cottages

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A small number of farmers grow fruits in the Matjisvlei valley.  More than one owner has cottages available for rent.  We decided to stay at River View Cottages after reading about them and looking at their property on Google Earth.  The area appeared good for succulent explorations.  The farm and 3 cottages are very close to the Gamka River.

We only stayed here one night because of scheduling issues and the availability of cottages.  However, it was sufficient for us to take a very nice hiking trail that started just behind our cottage and went for a mile or two up the succulent covered slopes.  We saw for the first time a nice arborescent Aloe and some other nice plants…

UPDATE:  We returned in early 2018 for two nights at the River View Cottages.  We stayed at the same cottage as before and we had more time for photography and exploration.  Although many of the plants were similar to those we saw during our first visit, we explored the beginning of trail #3 that we had not seen before. There we saw better examples of some succulents and a few ones we hadn’t seen previously. Some of the photos from our 2018 visit are here.

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Views of the road to the cottages.  It is about 7 kilometers from the paved road to the cottages.  The road was in good shape and suitable for regular sedans.
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The road to the cottages.
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The main house near the cottages.  The owners grow fruit as do other farmers in the area.
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View of the main house and cottages from a higher area along the trail that starts from the area near the cottages.
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Our cottage.
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The kitchen at our modern and comfortable cottage.
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Views of the Gamka River from our cottage.
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Furnished patio at the cottage.
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One of the owner’s pets, Jock was a frequent visitor.
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The nature trail was steep in places but well-marked.   Many succulents were seen along this  trail.
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Portulacaria afra.
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Closer view of Portulacaria afra.
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Closer view of Aloe ferox.  There were many nice specimens of this Aloe at the beginning of the trail.
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Mike next to Aloe ferox near the start of the trail next to our cottage.
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As we continued up the trail all of a sudden Aloe speciosa appeared.
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Aloe speciosa.
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Rosario next to Aloe speciosa.
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Rosario next to an Aloe speciosa cluster.
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Rosario at a viewpoint along the trail.  Our cottage is in the center left part of the picture.
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Views of the Gamka River as we continue our hike along the trail.  The river is a bit of a lake at this point, being dammed just downstream.
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Rocky quartz outcrop and more succulents as we continue our hike.

Succulents kept appearing along the trail as we moved into different areas.  The Adromischus triflorus plants shown below were found growing in the rocky outcrops.

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Adromischus triflorus – based on our use of this website.
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Haworthia viscosa.
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Crassula rupestris.
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Sarcocaulon sp.
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Euphorbia enopla.
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Closer view of Euphorbia coerulescens.
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Another succulent along the trail.
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Crassula arborescens in the center and Portulacaria afra on the left.
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Returning to our cottage along the main road at the end of our 2.5 hour hike.
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Beautiful scenery and mountains in this area of the Little Karoo.
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Mike next to a large Portulacaria afra.
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Euphorbia sp.
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Portulacaria afra and Euphorbia sp.
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Euphorbia sp.

As we continued our hike we noticed a Gasteria sp. growing in a rocky area.

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Gasteria sp.
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Below is another succulent, Gasteria disticha? we saw during our hike.

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Cotyledon orbiculata.
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Crassula capitella.
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Crassula haemispherica.
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Crassula rupestris.
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Guests can swim in the Gamka River.
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Reeds at the Gamka River.
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Geckos outside our cottage at night.  They were eating insects attracted to the lights.
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Closer view of the Gecko – with a moth tempting fate.