The Silvermine valley - a reminiscence

Almost 50 years have spanned the interval between my last visit to the Silvermine valley and the hikes I have done in the last year with the walking group. We used to go there as teenagers when it was the Sunbird Nature Reserve.  Our 'crowd' of kids from Clovelly would walk across the valley from the Fish Hoek side along the track which ran behind Clovelly Country Club to Noordhoek and spend the day at Sunbird. There was a swimming pool fed by the Silvermine River and horses to ride if you were brave enough, but I think the main attraction, for the girls anyway, was the company of the handsome young rangers who looked after the reserve. They lived in old-fashioned gypsy caravans among huge old gum trees. It was their private paradise and we were privileged to join them.

As I write this, the Hollies' hit song of that long ago summer, He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother, is on the radio It brings back those memories so vividly that I can feel the sun on our backs as we walk down that track, hear the crunch of the gravel beneath our feet, smell the warm coats of the horses grazing in the field, see the cold clear water of the pristine Silvermine River gushing down the valley in eddying pools and tinkling falls. A detour into the farm fields to pull up a few carrots for the horses was part of the journey.
 
Today the caravans are gone, the trees burned down by wildfires, the horses are grazing in the Elysian fields  and the swimming pool has been reclaimed by the river. The valley is part of Table Mountain National Park and the public may freely roam across the grassy meadows along the riverbanks.

But I think I preferred it when it was 'ours'.