River of Bees

During my third year studying geology, we went to Aggeneys on a structural geology field trip. Aggeneys is a small mining town in the Northern Cape of South Africa. The area surrounding the town contains some of the richest known concentrations of copper, lead and zinc. Currently there is only one mine in operation - Anglo American's Black Mountain Mine.

We camped just outside of town in a valley nearby the study area. We were a group of 15 students with most of us living in tents for the week we were there. I was designated the alarm clock and had to wake up the camp each morning. One of my classmates later confessed that in those few seconds where I was yelling at him to get up he deeply loathed and hated me :-).

View of one of the valleys in the study area

The days were extremely hot and we were mobbed by these tiny flies (midges or in Afrikaans muggies). The area was quite large and we spent each day hiking through valleys and up mountains, mapping and taking photos and compass measurements. The objective was to figure out what rock types were present, their relative ages and the detail of any structural features such as folds or faults. The structure ended up being quite complex with a large synformal syncline being itself folded into a large antiformal syncline. The entire area is part of the Big Syncline East structural feature.

One afternoon, we were enjoying a well-deserved rest against on of the mountain slopes. We had found some shade in the overhang of a rock ledge and were watching some fellow classmates walking through the valley below us. Slowly, a buzzing noise caught our attention. Looking further up the valley, you could just make out this hazy cloud meandering over the bushes. We quickly realized it was a massive bee swarm and that our classmates were directly in it's path. We were too far away to shout any warning and could only watch.

The classmates in question were two guys relaxing in a small piece of shade provided by one of the few large trees in the area. The buzzing became louder and suddenly, they both jumped up and ran with arms wildly flapping in the air. We burst out laughing and couldn't stop! They looked as if they were ranting and raving in the middle of nowhere. Neither of them got stung - the bees simply flew over and past them.

Field trips are always memorable - even if it's only because of bad sunburn or bee stings in weird places :-).