Tiny treasures from our Baviaans River trip into the Eastern Cape Tourism Region. The striking caterpillar will pupate to become a death’s-head hawk moth (Acherontia atropos), famous from the thriller, ‘Silence of the Lambs’, and apparently the origin of the Jolly Roger skull and crossbones on pirate ship flags.
I suspect our little arachnid friend is a common bark spider (Caerostris sexcuspidata); but what caught my attention was the ‘Viking Mask’ on its back. Finally, we’re not sniffing mountain cabbage, by the way, but rather partaking in a traditional sinus-clearing ceremony using African Wormwood (Artimesia affra), as popularised by the Khoikhoi and San who roamed these ranges for many millennia 
Click here to view the pics