第909期:South African Landscape

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Jana: You mentioned snow. I had no idea it snows in South Africa.

Peter: Yeah, maybe I should qualify that. The central part of South Africa actually there's a range of mountains that run straight through from the northern part of South Africa right through almost to the southern tip of Africa called the Drakensberg and around these mountains and obviously on top of these mountains, you can find snow during wintertime. Actually it doesn't compare with snow in the Northern Hemisphere where you really have deep snow and things like that but it gets really cold during winter and temperatures would be far below zero for most of the time up in these mountainous areas. So, yeah, it's not enough snow to ski in but it's pretty cold.

Jana: Hmm, that sounds interesting. I always thought South Africa is really wild and rugged and hot. Are there any such areas?

Peter: Oh, yeah, right. Actually South Africa is very diverse when it comes to areas. Like there are many different climate zones, different landscapes and actually, if you travel around the country, you'd be really struck by how the vegetation can be so different within a morning's drive or an afternoon's drive. You could be in a completely different landscape and different vegetation, animals around you, different plant life. On the western side of the country, it can be really hot. It's almost got a desert type of, well it does have a desert type of landscape, very sparse vegetation, very little rainfall, not many people, not many animals, very beautiful. It's really a place I recommend people to visit because you can hear silence and it'd be quiet around you and yeah it's really beautiful but almost a bit strange, strange to be confronted by so much raw nature, I guess, if you can put it that way.

Jana: Wow, it sounds really interesting. What about, are there any tropical areas?

Peter: Hmm. I think on the eastern side of the country, close to the seaside, it's really hot and tropical most of the year. Winter, it's a bit cooler but especially the northeastern parts of the country lush tropical vegetation, wonderful fruit of course, but really, really hot. Temperatures of forty-five, forty degrees Celsius every day and ninety percent humidity. Yeah, like really, really hot.