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 Author: Leon Nell
”A book that is a joy to pick up and page through – one that will always take me back to where I've been.” Such is the intention behind this book, a description of the lush rainforest area of the Garden Route and the paradox of its proximity with the semi-desert of the Little Karoo. The author explores key areas of the coastal stretch between Mossel Bay and Storms River and of the broad valley, the Little Karoo, on the other side of the Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma mountains. Both regions are home to a great variety of plants and animals and are opened up and linked by roads built with great skill and massive effort through mountain passes and across rivers. Thousands visit these spectacular areas, heading for the sea or – in the opposite direction – the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees and the Cango Caves. This book will give them a glimpse of the wild and wonderful life along the way in a land steeped in history and natural diversity. Among the many subjects of interest are: - the remains of the forests and the last of the Knysna elephants This book will feed the curiosity of those who live in these unique parts of the country and those who travel through them. A lyrical but literal account, its aim is to give a glimpse of what lies out there, seen through the eyes of someone with years of experience in nature conservation and a lifetime of love for these lands that stretch between the desert and the deep. Leon Nell was born in Zambia and moved to South Africa in 1964. Here, he served as a nature conservator for 14 years, managing a nature reserve and supervising a number of smaller reserves in Mpumalanga. Nell was named Conservator of the Year in his division in 1994 for his work as chairperson of the Study Group Committee of Endangered Species. He moved to the Western Cape in 1997 and is the author of the highly acclaimed The Garden Route and Little Karoo (2003), as well as Knysna: A visitor’s guide to South Africa’s most popular coastal town (2005).
At the southern tip of Africa lies one of the most spectacular paradoxes of nature on earth. An arid semi-desert known as the Little Karoo meets a series of mountain ranges in the south that deprive it of much life-sustaining water and, in the process, mark its boundaries with a lush rainforest belt known as the Garden Route. The Little Karoo lies huddled between its greater namesake and the Garden Route, which stretches between the Indian Ocean in the south and the Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma mountains to the north. These ranges run virtually parallel to pristine beaches, separated from them by a coastal plateau which, in some parts, is only a few kilometres wide. The Garden Route and Little Karoo are steeped in history, conflict and tragedy, reaching back tens of thousands of years of human history and millions of years in time. Both show scenes of great splendour, the one harsh with soaring temperatures and cloudless skies, the other almost fairy-like with green, haunting, mist-cloaked forests and undulating hills alive with crystal-clear mountain streams. Both are home to a great variety of very different plants and animals, the width of a single mountain range providing the great divide. This is the land of Mantis and the nagloper, of mythical folklore and ancient tribal legend, of madness and mayhem, sudden wealth, bankruptcy and ruin, of lakes, caves and dark forests with hermaphrodite plants, hidden valleys and some of the most poignant wonders of nature. Thousands of people visit these spectacular areas and yet see very little of them, driving past indigenous forests with their wealth of plant and animal life and the mountain cloak of seemingly drab fynbos without a second thought while heading for the sea or, in the opposite direction, for the Cango Caves or the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees. When I visit a town, I want to explore it and the surrounding area and find out more. I want a book, not necessarily with comprehensive information, but one that feeds my curiosity about the world around me and its changing face over time. A book that is a joy to pick up and page through, one that will always take me back to where I’ve been. This is intended to be just such a book. The area I cover is large in terms both of distance and diversity. A small hillock or koppie in the arid and apparently ‘lifeless’ Karoo abounds with life in many forms, impossible for one person to study in depth and record. How then to put together one ‘complete’ book on this and on another, very different, region? When I began this work, it was difficult to foresee what a large project it would become. It has since been whittled down to manageable proportions but its original intention, hopefully, has not been lost – to give a glimpse of what lies out there through the eyes of someone with almost 20 years’ experience in nature conservation and a lifetime of love for these unique lands that stretch from the desert to the deep.”
… a vast and endless world of loveliness; unseen, unknown, untrodden save by those varied multitudes of stupendous, curious and beautiful quadrupeds, whose forefathers have roamed its mighty solitudes from primaeval ages, and with whom I afterwards became so intimately acquainted. R Gordon Cumming, on a hunting expedition in the southern Cape, 1850. Once known as Outeniqualand - a land of dreams and promises - the coastal area between the Great Brak and Keurbooms rivers has drawn settlers for centuries with its great beauty and the hope of untold wealth. Although 'Outeniqua' is generally taken to be a Khoi word meaning 'man laden with honey', the name, according to another theory, derives from the San 'Obiqua', an abusive term for 'murderer' or 'robber'. Multiple corruptions and transposition of sounds among different nationalities of settlers and explorers (Dutch, British, French, German) are said to have changed the name to 'Obnika', 'Otnika', 'Auteniqua', 'Anteniqua' and, finally, 'Outeniqua'. This second meaning is belied by the beauty of what, the harsh realities of Africa notwithstanding, must once have looked like a Garden of Eden on earth. The Garden Route encompasses Outeniqualand, stretching along the southern Cape coast from Mossel Bay in the west to Storms River in the east. To the north are the mountain walls of the Outeniquas and the Tsitsikamma range. To the south, nothing but water and thousands of square kilometres of uninhabited Antarctic ice. Truly the end of Africa, the ancient cliffs of this coastline experienced the break from the mega-continent Gondwanaland millions of years ago. They have looked down on vast changes: fluctuating sea levels, the coming and going of ice ages, the extinction of the great dinosaurs. These great geographical upheavals not only changed the face of the earth, but heralded the beginning of various forms of life that adapted to meet particular needs. Time and life worked together to create the enchantment of the Garden Route. Man has lived here longer than most minds can comprehend. Long before Europeans began to settle as subsistence farmers along the shores of the Mediterranean, and long before the great tribes of central Africa started to move south, people inhabited this coastline, living off land and sea. Some excavations give evidence of human life along the southern shores of Africa as far back as 60000 years. Others, like those at Klaasie's River and on the west coast of southern Africa, indicate much earlier human habitation. Indeed, mankind itself may have originated in southern Africa. Today, a national road meanders east-west through a coastal platform only 15 km wide at its narrowest and 40 km at the widest, affording access to spectacular views, hiking trails, unspoilt beaches, nature reserves, majestic mountains and secluded settings - part of what the Garden Route offers. Ravines, gorges and lakes together with more than 65000 ha of indigenous forest make this a world on its own, as if this piece of earth is indeed a garden, something to be cared for always and nurtured. Most of the rivers along the Garden Route originate either in the Outeniqua or Tsitsikamma mountains, which means that their catchment areas are relatively small. There are no urban or industrialized areas to flow through and the waters stay clean and unpolluted. While some rivers cut across so-called Table Mountain quartzite, most flow through granite or Cretaceous mudstone. Specific geological characteris-tics influence the patterns of the rivers and their tributaries. The most important rivers are the: Gourits River west of Mossel Bay; Great Brak River between Mossel Bay and George; Swart, Kaaimans, Silver and Touws rivers between George and Wilderness; Knysna River (flowing into the lagoon of the same name); Bietou and Keurbooms rivers near Plettenberg Bay; Groot River at Nature's Valley; and the Storms River, which flows through Tsitsikamma National Park. The Garden Route has a relatively high rainfall throughout the year, ranging from 500 mm per annum in the drier coastal parts to 1 200 mm per annum at Diepwalle and at Storms River Mouth. In general, rainfall increases from the warm dry coastline towards the moist coastal platform and, ultimately, the cold, wet Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma mountain ranges. Temperatures are mild, but can vary over a distance of only a few kilometres. They range from an average daily minimum of 7,4°C in July to an average daily maximum of 24,5°C in January. Although beneficial to the plants of the forests, high rainfall leads to leaching and the washing out to sea of nutrients from the soil. The result is a not particularly high-quality soil with a high acid content. In addition, the topsoil here is not very deep. In places, a bedrock of quartzitic sandstone or clay occurs at a depth of only 30 cm. This hampers plant growth severely, and trees are in a continuous search for nutrients and footholds for their root systems. Two types of vegetation are striking in the area: forest and fynbos. The Garden Route falls within the Cape Floral Kingdom, which is designated one of the earth's six plant kingdoms, with fynbos the dominant vegetation type. Forests lie scattered across a 250-km strip from near Robinson Pass in the west to Humansdorp in the east, the once vast Knysna and Tsitsikamma forests now comprising several large complexes on the coastal platform and smaller patches on mountain slopes and in ravines. UNIQUE TO THE AREA - FOREST AND FYNBOS The indigenous forests of the southern Cape are the largest stretch of natural forest in South Africa, covering approximately 65 000 ha, of which 43 000 ha are state owned. Some of the forests are little pockets or islands in a sea of exotics such as eucalyptus and pines, varying in size from as little as 50 ha to more than 5000 ha. Along the coast, forests have a drier shrub-like appearance and the vegetation has to be hardy to survive the continuous assault of salt spray in the air - a mist that does little to keep the soil moist. The one exception is the area around Storms River, where the Tsitsikamma Mountains loom close to the coast and the coastal belt is at its narrowest. This results in high rainfall and wet conditions. Further inland, rainfall increases and moist forest types occur, with typical high canopies and valuable timber. Wet forests, characterized by a dense undergrowth of ferns and moss and fungi, grow on some slopes and in perennially damp ravines. Add the vast array of fynbos plants to the numerous types of forest vegetation found on the Garden Route and you come up with a staggering diversity. The south- ern Cape is unequalled on the planet in its numbers of plant species and plant communities. Of fynbos alone, there are 8 600 species, of which at least 5 800 are endemic. Compare this with Britain, which has a total of 1 500 plant species, of which only 20 are endemic. The entire African continent has some 30 000 species in an area 235 times as large as the fynbos regions of the southern Cape. The major conservation areas that contain fynbos on the Garden Route and in the Little Karoo are, from east to west, the Baviaanskloof and Kouga mountains, Tsitsikamma Mountains, and the slopes of the Langkloof, Outeniquas, Kammanassie Mountains, Groot Swartberg, Klein Swartberg, Rooiberg, Langeberg and Anysberg. It is surprising how little people know of the spectacular diversity of the seemingly drab countryside they pass through on the way to beautiful views and lush forests. To the untrained eye, the slopes and undulating hills may seem dull and boring. They are home, however, to 526 of the world's 740 erica species, 96 varieties of gladioli and 69 of the 112 protea species on this planet - a unique and amazing diversity commented on by R Gordon Cumming in 1850: ”The green banks and little hollows along the margins of these streamlets are adorned with innumerable species of brilliant plants and flowering shrubs in wild profusion. Amongst them, to my eye, the most dazzling in their beauty were perhaps those lovely heaths for which the Cape is so justly renowned” TYPES OF FYNBOS There are five main types of fynbos: Proteoids are found between The Crags and Nature's Valley, near Harkerville, along the slopes of Prince Alfred's Pass and in parts of the Outeniquas. Predominantly large shrubs and small trees, they bloom in winter and usually do not grow at altitudes over 1000 m. Ericoids (well represented by the heath-like family Ericaceae) are predominant on many of the upper slopes of the Langeberg, Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma mountains and thrive where the rain-fall averages about 1 500 mm per annum. Dry fynbos is widespread from coastal dunes inland to the drier slopes of the mountains and into the Karoo, where it is often found in association with renosterveld, karoo succulents and other plant communities. It is typically sparse and resembles ericaceous fynbos but true ericoids, as well as restioids and proteoids, are rare. Restioids survive under special moist conditions, especially on the warm north-facing slopes of the mountains and foothills and on deep well-drained soils in the coastal lowlands where the rain-fall is not less than 350 mm per annum. Wiry and reed-like, they are the precursors of grasses. Grassy fynbos occurs in a narrow belt from the foothills of the Langeberg eastwards along the Baviaanskloof and Kouga moun-tains, summer-growing subtropical grasses replacing restioids. Subtropical thicket shrubs are common, proteoids rare. TYPES OF FOREST Botanists have classified forests into six types in three major climatic zones. Although an oversimplification, this is useful as a management tool and helps one to understand and identify forest types. Dry scrub forests occur along the coast and contain hardy species such as Cape saffron and white milkwood. The canopy is low (6-12 m). Ferns are absent and low stunted shrubs such as num-num and sagewood are plentiful. Dry high forests (the canopy about 18 m) grow on the moderately warm northern and western slopes of the lower coastal platform, with species like candlewood, white pear and quar. Ferns, herbaceous plants and thorny scrubs grow on the forest floor. Medium moist forests are found further inland and higher on the coastal platform. These forests comprise almost 40 per cent of the indigenous forests in the area and are the source of most of the valuable timber that is harvested. Species include stinkwood, real yellowwood and Cape beech. The canopy is about 22 m high. Moist high forests occur even higher on the coastal platform. The canopy can reach 30 m, some of the forest giants attaining even greater height. Grotesquely shaped stinkwoods and alders reach skywards and the forest floor is densely covered with grass, ferns and herbs. Wet high forests grow on the eastern and southern slopes of the foothills and on the higher plateau adjacent to the mountains. The canopy is normally 12-20 m. Ferns flourish (including tree ferns in the darkest, wettest parts) and species such as notsung and tree fuschia grow along with stinkwood, real yellowwood, kamassie and red alder. Wet scrub forests lie furthest inland in extremely wet, shallow soils high on sheltered mountain slopes and in deep gorges and ravines. The canopy is normally not higher than 10 m. Ferns are plentiful and the Cape stock rose grows here along with wet forest species like stinkwood and Cape beech.
Ride Magazine Sunday Independent Business Day (John Fraser)
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