The woodcutters and gold prospectors may be long gone, but travellers can still relive this fascinating historic era through a series of forest walking trails that evoke the vanished world of the woodcutters, winding beneath the canopy along rust-coloured streams dappled with sun and shadow.

BBC: Step back in time in South Africa��s Garden Route

The sun's path across the sky varies with the seasons, so the shadow cast by such a gnomon varies, too.

ECONOMIST: Gnomonic possession