Beautiful views of the Mabou area and of the Cape Mabou Highlands are on offer at many points along the Southwest Ridge Road (also known as the Mabou Ridge Road) as it climbs up to Mabou Ridge from Mabou Village. Those on this page, taken a bit earlier on the same day as those on Hunters Road, were from the summit just past the MacLeod Road where a large open field offers views of the Cape Mabou Highlands. As was the case from Hunters Road, a bit of haze hangs in the air of this otherwise beautiful early fall day.
ISO 200 32 mm ƒ⁄10 1⁄400 sec
Taken 2013 October 11 in Southwest Ridge from the Southwest Ridge Road
about 125 m (410 ft) from its junction with the MacLeod Road
GPS 46°02.093'N 61°23.460'W
Photo #1 shows the wide panorama available from the road at the summit, with the prominences along the southern and southeastern edges of Cape Mabou spread across the width of the photo in the background. The green fields at the right in the far distance are in Northeast Mabou; the prominences at the centre and the left rise above the Mabou River on its way to the Gulf. As was the case on the previous page, very little autumnal colour is showing, though the general hue of the Highlands is more mottled than would be the case in summer. The browns of the grasses along the road and a few changed colours in the area left of centre prove this is not a summer photo.
Photo #2 brings the green fields in Northeast Mabou into sharper focus. The long slope descending from the far right towards the centre of the photo is Mabou Mountain, whose water tower can be made out as a round grey shape nestled in the trees above the side of the house just right of centre in the middle ground. Here, it is very clear that the trees on Cape Mabou are no longer pure green, but are slowly starting to change into fall colours.
[continued below]
ISO 200 105 mm ƒ⁄7.1 1⁄800 sec
Taken 2013 October 11 in Southwest Ridge from the Southwest Ridge Road
about 125 m (410 ft) from its junction with the MacLeod Road
GPS 46°02.089'N 61°23.455'W
ISO 200 300 mm ƒ⁄5.6 1⁄1000 sec
Taken 2013 October 11 in Southwest Ridge from the Southwest Ridge Road
about 125 m (410 ft) from its junction with the MacLeod Road
GPS 46°02.089'N 61°23.454'W
Photo #3 is a close-up of the trees on Mabou Ridge showing signs of colour at the left of centre of photo #1. Lots of greens, some already bare trees, a few yellow/orange leaves mixed in with greens on the tree left of centre, and some darker-hued red/green mixtures constitute this small splash of colours on Mabou Ridge. One can surmise that the deciduous trees across the valley on the Highlands are in a similar state of transformation.