Walk Report – Sept 2018

18 August 2018 For an undemanding ramble with plenty of interesting features, the Denis Heesom Trail has plenty to offer. So it was that eleven members and guests set off from Jock’s Bay – well, actually from the Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens, down Waterfall and Lipkin Roads to Jock’s Bay – on a sparkling morning, the destination being Stony Point. Wind pruned vegetation on the Denis Heesom Trail Cape Seashore Vegetation has to be extraordinarily tough to survive in an environment that is hostile to any but the most cunning of plants. Survival strategy…
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Gardeners Group Report

23 July 2018 There is so much to learn about fynbos and gardening in the Kogelberg – what to plant, when and where; what to remove, why and how. Newcomers to the area as well as some firmly embedded residents struggle with these and other questions, yet in our midst are those with know-how and success stories to share. This is how the idea came about to arrange regular meetings under the auspices of the Botsoc committee to bring together those in the know with those who would like to know. The intention is to…
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Talk Report – Aug 2018

Thunberg and Sparrman: Eighteenth Century Botanical Explorers to the Cape - By Andrea Benn (22 July 2018) On the evening of 22 July 2018, John Rourke took a group of interested members through a talk he had previously offered at the UCT Summer School on two 'apostles' of Carl Linnaeus, the famed Professor of Medicine and Botany at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, in the early 1800s. Linnaeus himself never travelled outside of Europe and thus relied on his 'apostles' to discover thousands of species of plant across the globe. Two of these explorers were Carl Peter…
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Walk Report – Aug 2018

- In search of Protea mundii (21 July 2018)  The objective was to scout the Plateau Path above Fairy Glen in the Kleinmond Mountain Nature Reserve. The fire of early 2017 and the rains of two winters since then must surely have yielded some profit. Principle quarry included seedlings of Protea mundii and re-growth of Pillansia templemanii, both of which had been burnt to a cinder fifteen months ago. Were they recovering? So it was that a doughty group of nine members and guests set off from the Fairy Glen picnic site in crisply cold,…
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Talk Report – July 2018

1. Sky Islands: An illustrated talk - By David Gwynne-Evans (19 May 2018) When first hearing of the title of David’s talk one might imagine planets or constellations, but no, this talk was about Mountain Peaks that emerge through the clouds forming islands in the sky. A beautiful example is Tretchikoff’s  painting, “Valley of a Thousand Hills”, depicting mountain peaks peeking through the cloud mass. David, who admitted to a fear of heights, has climbed into the island archipelagos  of Kenya, Tanzania, the Drakensberg, the Canary and Cape Verde islands. He has plans to visit…
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Walk Report – July 2018

– By Tim Attwell (19 May 2018)  The aim of the exercise was to find less seen and seldom recognised members of the protea family close to home. Where better than Rod’s Trail? Maybe because it’s in Betty’s Bay’s back yard there is a tendency to overlook this extraordinary little trail through Kogelberg Sandstone Fynbos on the slopes of Voorberg when looking for the rare and remarkable. So it was that we set off from the Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens, up Kloof Road, behind the Disa Youth Camp and on to the mountainside. The objective…
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The Wednesday Hack

Work continued on the slopes of the Klein Hangklip mountains between Pringle Bay and Rooi Els. During the month, 53 man-hack days were thrown at the enemy. We also did a follow up at Die  Stroompie. Hackers were: Tom Dreyer, Ed Silberbauer, Frik Potgieter, Jan Joubert, Ulli Niemann, Selwyn Botha, Louw Toerien, Chris Geldenhuys, Mike Begley, Jane Fearnhead, Mike Robinson, Willem Stiglingh, Chris Cadman, Nils Rottcher, Jack Wixley and Greg Mossner. Frik Potgieter – Convenor
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Walk Report – May 2018

– By Tim Attwell (21 April 2018) The great thing about the Hanneshoek Trail is its accessibility. It’s easy going, short and gets you into one of the most Protea rich areas around. Because you can take your time, that’s what we did. Situated on the lower mountain slopes above the Kleinmond Golf Course, this gem of a walk plunges you almost immediately into one of the most spectacular stands of Protea compacta, aka Bot River Protea, that you will find anywhere. It’s easy for us residents of the southern coastal part of the Kogelberg to…
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