Well it has been a slow week, that would be three days with the Monday holiday, of work. Marcia has been continuing to build her database of management practices dealing with invasive species as well as a contact list of people working with invasive species. I spent most of my time preparing specimens from field trips and their data sheets for submission to the herbarium for ID determination or confirmation. I did break the week with a talk at the University of Cape Town followed by a quick trip to a local preserve. The talk was about local community perceptions about and involvement in an adjacent nature preserve. Conclusions were drawn about what needed to happen to allow a preserve to draw from the local community and to be able to give back to the local community. Similar problems to those seen at home were presented and discussed. Not surprising were funding and engagement by way of environmental education through teachers so as to get students more interested and involved.

After the talk Caitlin, Albert, and I drove to Harmony Flats Nature Preserve, to the east of Cape Town just off False Bay. This is one of the preserves/conservation plots on the Cape flats. The Cape flats is an almost gone habitat that is only found around Cape Town. It is a very sandy substrate that supports a distinct type of fynbos. Much effort is being expended to preserve as much of what is left of this habitat as possible. Thus Harmony Flats! What is so striking about this site is that it is maybe 4 ha that is bordered to its north by the Casablanca township. To its east and south are upscale residential communities. Through the middle of the preserve is a well-worn path that appeared to be predominantly used by the township residents going to and coming from work in the nearby residential communities. And the folks who have taken ownership of the preserve and worked to remove aliens and helped bring school groups to the site are from the township. Very interesting, and oh what contrasts!

We went because a species of Ixia was in bloom, a species that is one of the specials. And it was in glorious bloom. So was a species of Protea with limited distribution. And this was a small Protea, less than a meter tall. But it was in glorious flower. Seems I was too late for the fly orchid, but I did get to watch the Cape clapper lark doing its breeding display. This lark displays by flying straight up from the ground and clapping as it goes. It sounds just like a person clapping. At the peak of its ascent it stops clapping and whistles while it descends in a arc back to the ground. Great display and fun to watch. No pictures of the lark but a few flower pictures.


The Ixia was found!


A species of Lapeirousia.


A Protea known as scoly, short for Protea scolymocephala.

Tomorrow we head out on another excursion. This time we are going east and south from Cape Town. We are going to what is called the Southern Cape. And more specifically the Overberg-Breede River area. We will be staying just east of Cape Agulhas in a seaside community called Arniston. Cape Agulhas is the southernmost point in Africa and is actually where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans merge. This is supposedly much less dramatic than the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. We will find out. We will take our time on the coastal road tomorrow and then decide where we want to go on Saturday once we get settled tomorrow night. We will head back to Newlands on Sunday at some time. Should be fun, and we might get to see more whales. Hope to have some good pictures as well!

Edward

It's Monday morning, the public holiday for Heritage Day, and we wake up to the sound of rain, and lots of it. It started last night following a major blow. The winds blew the curtains through the windows and rattled the doors. None of this bode well for the day to be good for touring the lower peninsula. We were to be picked up by Diana Buchanan, the woman who lives in St. James (a seaside community just down the penisula from Cape Town) and who found The Garden Room for us, so we could go to Table Mountain National Park and make our way to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. We met, and I mean met for the first time, her last Tuesday for lunch at the Tea Room in Kirstenbosch Garden. And at 10 AM today she was taking us on her tour.

At 10 we loaded both wheelchairs and Marcia and me into Diana's car with Diana and her two little dogs. And off we went. And 71/2 hours later we returned home. What a day! I am still shaking my head at what we got to see and where we got to go while being hosted by this wonderful woman whom we met less than a week ago. Amazing!!

And here is what we saw:

ostriches, both on the farm and in the wild
the Atlantic Ocean crashing on the rocky shore
blacksmith plover, two guarding their nest with two eggs
African black oystercatcher
angulate tortoises, of all sizes
parrot-beaked tortoise, at least one
Cape cobra, big but heading in the other direction
baboons, big and with young
red hartebeests, at least 6 dashing right in front of us
African penguins, hundreds of them

And not to be left out are the proteas and other wildflowers that lined the road. This was mountain fynbos with proteas ranging from the small and delicate to the large and woody. Great to be able to see how the vegetation changes from one area of the park to the next. Different species of protea present and in different abundances and with different associated non-protea species. Moisture and soil type are major determiners of these associations, fynbos types.

What was really so special is that we were able to go to a section of the park that is not open to most visitors. Seems Diana's grandfather had purchased land along the Atlantic coast down this Peninsula early in the 20th century. He farmed it for some time but then mainly used it for a place to go on holiday. Eventually there were four houses built, one for each of the sons and their families. Then in 1938 part of the peninsula was declared a nature reserve. Over the years more land was added and it became the Cape Peninsula National Park. The name changed in 2004 to Table Mountain National Park. The original family property was now engulfed by the park. What resulted was the families retained access to their land with the park all around, but no new buildings could be built and a hiking trail through their property was developed. Not a bad deal. The four houses/cottages overlook the rocky Atlantic shore. The sound of the ocean is just fabulous and the rocks and tide pools are so inviting. Diana's cottage is decorated with all sorts of things collected from shipwrecks from their shoreline. And she told us about her multi-year record of always coming home with crayfish after going out on the rocks to catch them. What a very special place to be. After I had done some rock hopping and exploring and it was time to go, Marcia voted to stay. A real treat for us to be able to experience this.

And now for a few pictures!


This is the view from Diana's cottage. Though not easy to see, one of her dogs is sitting in Marcia's lap.


This is looking north to Olifantbos Point. Olifant=elephant and bos =bush. Not sure there were actually elephants here at any time.


Lichens and a tough little composite just beyond the high tide line.


One of the pincushion proteas in glorious bloom. And there were others that were even larger and packed with more flowers.


So cute!


The woman in the red hat behind Marcia is Diana, our so very generous and special host. How very fortunate we have been.


And the diaper hat made it to South Africa! Check out what the sign to the left says.

Dankie, Diana! What an incredibly special day this was.

Edward

Back to Darling and the rest of our adventure. We arose on Saturday morning to the sound of more rain. And it was even heavier than the day before. Everybody eventually arose and made their way to the kitchen for breakfast. After saying our goodbyes to Pat and Bobby we took advantage of a break in the rain to get ourselves loaded into the car and on our way to the flower show. The show was being held inside but the vendors were in the field outside the building. And it was pretty messy from all the rain.


We headed inside to see what wildflower shows were all about. And what we found was nothing like our flower and garden shows. Using the plants found in the natural areas around Darling landscapes were designed and recreated. These included the different substrates and types of water bodies seen in the veld. Animal specimens were also added.The different habitats created were labeled by type, e.g., sandveld or fynbos. The pictures give a sense of these displays but not a good feel for how much detail there was. And how many blooming plants were in each. Amazing displays!

In addition to the landscape displays there were some arrangements of the native flowers. Not fancy but very pretty. Most impressive to me was the display of specimens of these plants with labels presenting both their common and scientific names. And people were viewing these and knew many of them. It was striking to see so many people of all walks of life interested in these plants and in the preservation of them in their natural habitats. And there were plants available for purchase for what seemed very low prices. A note about plants for sale, both at these shows and at the nursery we visited, they were not typically in pots. Instead they were in plastic sacks. Interesting.

From the show we headed south from Darling but first stopped at the meat market in town. We had had some of its sausage at Pat and Bobby's and wanted to get some to take home. Then it was off to Mamre. Along the way we tried to purchase some orchid flowers at the orchid show but couldn't get into the sales area without paying admission again. So I kept my money and gave them none.

In Mamre the theme was the same but it was evident that Darling has been doing this flower show thing for many years longer than Mamre. The flower exhibits were in a tent and there were vendors on the grounds all around. But the vendors were more local and there was more of a small town festival feel to it. There was even a brass band that paraded on the street next to the show grounds. Nevertheless, the flower displays were very impressive. And I got to introduce Marcia to Sophie and Ann. Sophie is the lead CREW contact in Mamre as well as the coordinator of the Mamre flower show. She and Ann had arranged the school group for Plant Monitoring Day (see earlier entry). It was very nice to see them again and Sophie seemed particularly pleased that we had come to see the show.



After refreshments we headed home by way of the coastal route, R27. That took us through numerous beach developments and past some very fancy homes. All in all a most delightful trip north we had. And to round out the weekend, on Sunday we went to Kirstenbosch to see the Biennial, the display of botanical art. Some truly stunning pieces of art were seen. Then to see some living specimens in the Conservatory. A great way to finish a really packed and enjoyable week in Cape Town and its surrounding areas!

Edward

Today is Heritage Day. This is what I have learned about the holiday (material is from http://www.info.gov.za/events/2001/heritageday01.htm).

*After South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, a Government of National Unity (GNU) was formed.
* Government agreed that prior to the 1994 elections, there were important historical days that the apartheid government did not recognise.
* These days were "unofficially" commemorated but not part of the calendar of public holidays.

* Cabinet decided that there should be a day (24 September) on which South Africans commemorate their heritage.
* The Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (DACST), as the custodian of South Africa's culture, was given the responsibility to plan and manage events for Heritage Day at the national level annually.
* The first Heritage Day commemoration took place on 24 September 1995.

* Although South Africans have diverse cultures, elements of national unity, nation building, reconciliation and national patriotism should be emphasised.
* The ideal is to preserve, exhibit and promote our diverse but connected cultures.
* Heritage Day should encourage the youth, in particular, to embrace South Africa's common heritage.

And in talking to a few locals I got the sense that there may have been a holiday in September that was not politically correct that was dropped. I couldn't confirm this, however. Nonetheless today is Heritage Day and tomorrow is a public holiday. There are celebrations all over and President Mbeki is speaking at one of the events to be held in Cape Town today.