Last week Blue
Hill Nature Reserve was honoured by a visit by the Outramps CREW
group. CREW (Custodians of rare and endangered wildflowers) is a
SANBI volunteer initiative where anyone can go and monitor plant
species of conservation concern in their area – for more
information visit:
The
Outramps are legendary, with outings or expeditions every week to the
natural gems of the Western Cape. They have brought species of
conservation concern to the attention of developers, discovered a
host of new plant species, rediscovered species thought lost to
science, and generally pumped loads of energy into documenting the
state of the flora in the greater George area, focusing mainly on the
Langeberge, Outeniqua, Swartberg, Kammanassie and Rooiberg mountain
ranges. While that is a large number of sites to visit, the group was
up for something new – and I'd been tantalizing Di Turner, the
groups unstoppable leader, with images from the Kouga mountains for
months. So finally a date was arranged and the team of interesting
and inspired ladies – Jean, Russel, Gail and Anne – journeyed to
Blue Hill. Photos of
identified flowers are loaded on Ispot:
http://www.ispot.org.za/node/155219?nav=search
This is the trip report compiled by Di Turner.
A Blue Hill in the Kouga
We’ve had
some memorable trips this year, but Blue Hill in the Kouga, must rate
as one of the best. Time was limited and we were only able to
spend 1 night and 2 days there. We have promised ourselves a
speedy return.
Blue Hill
Nature Reserve is owned by Chris and Elaine Lee. It is very
isolated, vast and bordering on the Baviaanskloof. For them, it
was a toss-up between this and a cottage on the southern coast
ofEngland. We debated the choice, because they couldn’t be
more different. Blue Hill is in a savage part of Africa and
is prone to periodic flooding, which cuts them off from
civilisation. Maintaining access roads is a major problem.
The senior Lees bought the property on condition that Alan their son
and his wife Anya, would be able to live there and help them. Alan is
an ornithologist and is busy doing a survey of the movement of birds
in the Fynbos. Occasional volunteers give some additional assistance,
but it remains a major undertaking. It is a daunting task.
Anya and Alan
made us very welcome. The guest house is super and very
tastefully decorated. The entry road was interesting, but the
old girl (Buchu Bus) made it without any problems. We climbed
into the Landcruiser bakkie and travelled towards the far
north-eastern boundary. A fire in early February burnt up huge
tracts of land in the Kouga and Kammanassie and we were interested to
see the veld. Botanising was cut short by torrential rain.
Some of the party braved the elements, while some returned to the
guest house for a very interesting id session. Doing site
sheets and taking photographs in that kind of weather, remains a
challenge.
Despite the
weather, we managed a braai. Elaine, who has a Phd in History
was both interesting and entertaining. We spent a lovely
evening in front of a big log fire. Drenched clothes were dried
in preparation for the next day.
By morning, the
rain had abated and we took off on the Bloukop track which is a
circular trail. There was lots to interest us, with a number of
species that were new to us. Leucadendron pubibracteolatum
(Near Threatened) was a survivor from the fire. We saw
Pegolettia retrofracta for the first time. The dwarf shrub
Crassula perforata subsp. kougaensis was an exciting find on a steep
rock cliff. It is Redlisted as Critically rare, but I suspect
that this status will change rapidly, now that we are aware of the
plant. Erica flocciflora (Near threatened) was growing close to
the stunning Erica passerinae. We also saw Psoralea sp. nova
(forbesii} growing on the banks of a stream. The Vlok Boekie
was invaluable for helping us id plants that we’d never seen
before. Alan’s copy was looking a little dog-eared, by the
time we got back to the homestead at about 2pm.
The weather was
looking threatening and we hurried to make it out over the exit
road. We were out of food and commitments at home were
pressing. The water hadn’t risen significantly, but we
probably made it just in time. As we approached George the
weather got steadily worse. By yesterday afternoon, we’d had
110 mms and it’s been raining all night. The rivers are in
full spate. You can hear them from the top of Strawberry Hill,
as they roar down the ravines. It is still too dark to see if
there’s been any damage. Robert McKenzie has dire tales from
Grahamstown, which is about to be cut off from the rest of the
world. There’s been a huge cave-in on the N2. I have
included the photograph, which Robert sent.
Hopefully all
this extreme weather will have disappeared by Wednesday. We are
planning to explore a valley off the Langkloof Road. After the
exciting finds at Perdepoort, we are sure that there will be
something interesting there. A Garden Route Initiative meeting on
Friday, means that there will not be our usual field trip this week.
What an
exciting year it has been.
Groete en
dankie
Di Turner
Outramps CREW
Group
Southern Cape
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| Di and Jean |
 |
| L pubibracteolatum |
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| Psoralea sp nov |
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