– Tim Attwell

Botsoc Walk 20 August 2016

The Denys Heesom Trail at Betty’s Bay commemorates a hero of the fight against alien invasive vegetation and founder, 53 years ago, of the famous ‘Betty’s Bay Hack’.

Multi-talented Denys Heesom was a director of companies, doyen of South Africa’s cricket statisticians in the 1970s, one-time mayor of Betty’s Bay and inspirational conservationist.

Multi-talented Denys Heesom was a director of companies, doyen of South Africa’s cricket statisticians in the 1970s, one-time mayor of Betty’s Bay and inspirational conservationist.

The eponymous Denys Heesom Trail starts at Jock’s Bay in Betty’s Bay and follows the coast in a westerly direction through low wind-pruned thicket of Overberg Dune Strandveld and past the ancient Milkwoods (Sideroxylon inerme) which miraculously survived the April 2005 flash flood down the Dawidskraal River that obliterated Dawidskraal Road. Crossing the river in August requires that you ignore the cold and take off your boots or gingerly pick your way across some slippery stepping stones.

It was the Cape Seashore Vegetation we were really after. A pause for a refreshing nibble on fresh leaf tips of kinkelbos, aka dune spinach (Tetragonia decumbens), provides an opportunity to spot the threatened Manulea tomentosa in flower close by. Sea parsley, Dasispermum suffruticosum, of the family Apiaceae (carrot family) coupled with the kinkelbos has us nostalgic for the days of the neighbourhood green grocer where you bought carrots and beetroot with their tops still attached.

While busy with vegetables that are good for you, we spot Lessertia frutescens, ‘kankerbos’. Ben-Erik van Wyk, Bosch van Oudtshoorn and Nigel Gericke’s book Medicinal Plants (a Briza publication) declares that kankerbos really does show ‘cancer chemopreventive activity’ as well as antidiabetic and immune boosting effects. The strandlopers of long ago knew a thing or two.

The full moon results in a very low tide and consequently a wide, firm and long beach to walk on, ‘just cruisin’ among a large company of anglers in rapt concentration and competition.

It’s not Namaqualand, but the mass display of the white daisies of Rankbietou (Dimorphotheca fruticosa) in their early spring splendour doesn’t disappoint. As we approach the end of the trail at Stony Point, a pair of African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) emerges from the thicket and waits patiently for us to pass before crossing the path to go for a swim. Very civilised.