by KBergReserve

Walk Report – Dec ’18 – Feb ’19

December 2018 An advantage of birding over botanising is that, if you choose the right spot, the birds come to you. So it was that our December walk found us getting comfortable in the spacious bird hide in the Rooisand Nature Reserve. Binoculars? Check. Bird guide book? Check. Flask of tea or coffee and a snack? Check. Good company? Check. Then we waited. The decision to go birding rather than botanising was motivated by the desire to do something a little different – and make the walking a little easier. A trip to the Rooisand…
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by KBergReserve

Walk Report – Oct 2018

Yes, our Botsoc Kogelberg monthly walk was indeed scheduled for the third Saturday of October – the 20th to be precise. And yes, a small group of faithful walkers did arrive at the Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens at 09:00 on that day. Things were going swimmingly – except for the wind, blowing great guns. A short conference ensued and consensus reached almost immediately. ‘Rain we can manage’, noting that our walks haven’t been rained out for years, but this wind is not worth it. So we promised each other that we would get together…
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by KBergReserve

Walk Report – Sept 2018

Walk Report for 15 September 2018   It had been months in the making – a combined walk, bringing together members of the Kirstenbosch Branch and the Kogelberg Branch of the Botanical Society, and it didn’t disappoint.  When you have upward of twenty-two eager fynbos junkies making their way through the Brodie Link part of the Hangklip Nature Reserve two things immediately become apparent, you move more slowly and you see more flowers. Aided by such botanical legends as Ivor Jardine and Corinne Merry, we could be sure of a fascinating morning. A bewildering variety of Aspalathus, Cyclopia, Diastella, Serruria, Erica, Leucospermum (including the exquisite sprawling L. prostratum in full flower), Lachnea, fragrant Agathosma, Gladiolus, Mairia, Erepsia, Wachendorfia paniculata, the endemic Hangklip form of Saltera…
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by KBergReserve

Kogelberg BotSoc AGM Annual Report

Botanical Society of South Africa : Kogelberg Branch AGM 21 July 2018 Annual Report - By Tim Attwell, Chairman  It is more than appropriate to begin this Annual Report by paying tribute to our former Chairman, Merrilee Berrisford. (Merrilee correctly insists that the word is indeed ‘Chairman’ and not the neologism ‘Chairperson’, since the ‘man’ in the word ‘Chairman’ refers to the Latin manus, a hand, and not to the male gender of Homo sapiens.) Merrilee has guided, inspired and managed the Kogelberg Branch of the Botanical Society with a vigour and enthusiasm that is impossible…
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by KBergReserve

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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by KBergReserve

Botsoc Kogelberg Next Walk

19 May 2018 Do you know your Spatalla from your Paranomus? Or if you saw an Aulax cancellata, would you know it from a growth of Pinus pinaster? Happily these are not anatomical abnormalities. Apart from Pinus pinaster they are members of the family Proteaceae. Yes, Proteas. But they don’t look like it. Rod’s Trail is a familiar old friend, but it never fails to come up with something different and interesting. Easily accessible Kogelberg Sandstone Fynbos, the jewel of the Cape Floristic Region, there is always something happening on the slopes of Voorberg. No…
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by KBergReserve

Finding NEMBA: Adventure into Community Conservation

– By Tim Attwell  No, NEMBA isn’t an endearing little clown fish. That’s Nemo who wowed audiences around the world about the time that NEMBA first saw the light of day. Nemo’s eventful journey from the Great Barrier Reef to a dentist’s reception room in Sydney harbour and back, and his clown fish father Marlin, and regal blue tang fish friend, short-term-memory-challenged Dory’s desperate quest to rescue Nemo, is a great romp. It also carries an underlying message about people and the marine environment which environmental purists will no doubt find disturbingly anthropomorphic. No matter, it’s…
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by KBergReserve

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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by KBergReserve

Walk Report – April 2018

Botsoc Kogelberg Walk Report - By Tim Attwell (17th March 2018) After a series of more challenging walks, the intention was to take this one easy with a botanical ramble in the Harold Porter National Botanical Gardens, go slow and easy up the Bobbejaanskop path and hopefully see the last of Nivenia stokoei near the top. There was also the possibility, lower down in more sandy areas, of coming across Nerine sarniensis and other Amaryllidaceae such as Haemanthus, Brunsvigia and Ammocharis, not an unreasonable expectation, it being the month of March, after all.   But ‘things…
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by KBergReserve

Walk Report – March 2018

Botsoc Kogelberg Walk Report - By Tim Attwell (17th February 2018) It seemed a good idea at the time. February serves up the best of summer in the Kogelberg; not much wind, little chance of rain and warm sunny days. The prospect of a swim in the Palmiet River was too good to resist. And so it proved. Except that the swimming spot we chose, the famous ‘Beach’ on the Palmiet River, deep in the Kogelberg Nature Reserve, was five kilometres from the parking spot and there was indeed little cooling breeze, negligible cloud cover and…
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