Lovely beyond any singing of it

There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it. The road climbs seven miles into them, to Carisbrooke; and from there, if there is no mist, you look down on one of the fairest valleys of Africa. About you there is grass and bracken and you may hear the forlorn crying of the titihoya, one of the birds of the veld. Below you is the valley of the Umzimkulu, on its journey from the Drackensberg to the sea; and beyond and behind the river, great hill after great hill; and beyond and behind them, the mountains of Ingeli and East Griqualand.
-Alan Paton, Cry the Beloved Country (1948)

That is, I think, one of the finest opening paragraphs in literature. Oh the picture it paints in my mind!

(photo credit of the Ixopo valley to riesergal on Flickr)