Lake Pleasant and surrounds

Was out atlassing the other morning and came across this little fellow on his fench post perch watching the world go by - specially for you darling Sally.

With Knysna just up the road, a visit to the Heads View Site was compulsory as I don't remember ever being there before.  The eastern head is liberally sprinkled with lavish homes but as the western one is Featherbed National Park it only sports a couple of buildings.  National Parks run a ferry service to access the trails on that side and if the weather ever improves I'll being doing it one day.

Knysna itself is proving more and more popular with two of the larger islands in the lagoon absolutely smothered with development and large tracts of the easten ridge have been or are being converted into golf estates - as if there aren't enough all ready, 12 according to one brochure. A road now runs right up the rdige and along the top for at least 10 k's and at the end of it is a car park to access a trail.  It was from here that you really notice how much of this once superb spot is now under concrete.

Saw this in the car park - wasn't sure whether they were trying to get rid of the learner or the car....

A few evenings ago I was enjoying a sundowner and a snack when this guy dropped in for a visit.  I initially thought he was just using the guy rope as a convenient perch, as drongos still hunt, but it soon became clear that he was begging. Feeling like a bit of a wally (they are insectiverous you know) I chucked a small bit of chip, which he flew out and nabbed before it hit the ground, then rapidly polished it off.  He/she was soon joined but the mate and both of them were scarfing chips quite happily.  Needless to say as soon as the camera came out they got shy and scarpered and I only managed catch this one later when it settled for a few milliseconds.

Seem to recall mentioning the Montagu Pass over the Outeniquas (apparently Khoi for "land of plenty") so decide to drive up it as there were still a few days before the course started.  It really is most impressive though there are a couple of places that would prove very interesting if you met another vehicle.  Among the many flowers were these larger than normal lobelias, commonly known as 'Ladies slippers'.

The road crosses the Keur River - not sure what keur, or choice if I remember my schoolboy Afrikaans, was required, but as with most of the rivers around here the water is stained tea colour with tannins.

Near the top of the pass the road goes under then over the railway line that used to be home to the Outeniqua Choo Tjoe, which appears to no longer exist - a great pity

Between Knysna and Sedgefield is a turn-off to Brenton-on-sea which vaguely rang a bell so I decided to investigate.  The road goes up and over the ridge that ends in the western Head, so there's a rather splendid view of the lagoon on one side..........

..............and Buffel's Baai on the other.

It was only as I was driving out that the penny dropped when I saw a sign for the Brenton Blue Butterfly Reserve but you need permission to get in and it was getting late, so I decided to contact Steve Woodhall. He provided me with the name and number of Dave Edge, the Brenton Blue custodian.  What a charming fellow, but it turns out that these things are ultra-fussy and only fly between 12 noon and 2 pm on sunny days, which are a bit of a rarity in these parts at present.  We eventually managed to hook up which was when I learned EXACTLY how fussy these critters are.  Dave retired to Brenton 22 years ago and was instrumental in saving the butterfly from extinction when the only place they chose to live in was being developed - you may remember 50:50 and Carte Blanche doing pieces on it.  These programs put the developer in such a bad light that he was not selling plots and they got him to agree to a morotoriam on the sale of 13 sites while the Lepidopterist Society tried to raise enough to buy them.  They got to around 900 grand when the government stepped in and agreed to foot the bill, so that money was put in a trust and is still used to finance maintenance.  As not much was known about the breeding cycle, Dave regisstered to do a PhD and started delving.  For a start they feed on a plant (Indigofera erecta) that has two growth forms of which it prefers the one that only occurs in this 4 hectare patch.  After the second instar it moves underground to feed on the rootstock and starts producing a "honey" which a particular species of ant, that........is this getting repetitive..........only occurs here.  The ants take the larva into their colony and feed it until it pupates.  When it emerges it no longer has the wherewithall to satisfy the ants and if it doesn't gap it pronto, it gets eaten.  There are only two hatchings per year a shorter one in October/November and a slightly longer one in February.  So I was extremely lucky to see a male and two females and thanks to Steve so can you.

This is the female, which I did get to see very well and they are fairly big for a blue, at around 30 mm, not much of a butterfly though and according to Dave's meticulous counts, between 80 and 180 emerge per hatching. The prognosis looks good for now so it may last a few more years!

Went down to the beach for sundowners the other night and guess what, straight into the sea - so just where does the west coast start? Cape Augulus I guess.

And the paragliding?  Not so good.  It started out very much like the army with lots of "hurry up and wait" and after lugging 15 kgs of kit up a 30 m dune it felt even more like it.  By the time I got up there the wind was howling so it was grand old Duke of York time and we marched down again, then up this monster to get back to the vehicle.  I thought I was traning for the Royal Marines.

This was all repeated the next day and she expected us to do it 8 times in one morning - I made two.  I was shaking so much when I took off that I barely noticed leaving the ground and landed on my arse about 5 seconds later.  On the second flight I did a face plant about 200 m from where I was supposed to land and after being admonished my confidence was destroyed, so I quit.  Talk about being forced to run when you feel incapable of walking.  So now I'm looking for an old fart school that will appreciate that I'm 65 not 30.

So it was back to quieter pastimes like taking a 150 k drive down to Gouritzmond to find a Pacific Golden Plover, my first lifer since going to Mozambique in December last year.  Very obliging it was too.

House sitting

Next port of call was just outside Plettenburg Bay, about 50 k's down the road to a lovely site on the banks of the Keurboom River.  The keurbooms or blossom trees (Virgilia oroboides) were all in flower and laden with pink sweet-pea shaped flowers.  The campsite itself was huge and is surrounded by a nature reserve. Have been very lazy of late so forced myself onto the bike until my bum couldn't take any more - why do they insist on such crummy saddles?

Plett itself is a bit OTT so didn't spend much time there but did a morning in the impressive Robberg Nature Reserve.  There was a lot of mist hanging about so the views weren't that great.

After a downhill toddle to the "Neck" I think it was called - really need to write things down - the trail climbs to what is probably the highest point in the reserve.  Blowing like a stranded whale I eventually made it and hurled myself onto the very thoughtfully provided bench.  I was just getting my breath back when here comes kippie RUNNING up the trail,  I wonder what he does for fun.  My legs were definitely not going to make it around to the lighthouse so I took the shortcut down to something or other island and was gratified to see huge swathes of Swift Terns loafing around on the beach - the grey areas in the foreground.  The protected marine areas must be doing a really good job as I've never seen numbers like this before..

Of course what the trail map doesn't show is the horrendous climb back to the car park that all but finished me off and of course the mist was clearing by then so it was blazing hot as well, no pain, no..........yeah well.

Jane, a friend from Cape Town wanted to do some galavanting to exotic paces and asked if I could house sit for 10 days, which was fine by me.  So I moved on to Lake Pleasant Resort (and it is) just outside Sedgefield and checked in for a month.  It is right on the border of Groenvlei, one of the many lakes in this area.  A 3 k drive takes you to 14 k's of pristine beach where I walked for 2 hours and didn't see another soul - and yes I did take my clothes off.  A large blob on the beach turned out to be not the plastic I suspected, but a large jellyfish - which I  felt sorry for but couldn't do anything about.  Then it was time to head for Cape Town but had to stop to take this shot of Swartvlei close to Wilderness - what a stunning country this is.

And this is what I had to put up with for 10 days, which actually turned into two weeks as I had my bakkie serviced and they found some problems which they didn't have parts for.  I'm just under 1 200 K's from where I had the last service but have managed to run up 15 000 on the clock, I didn't think I'd do that in a year.  The sad thing is that the service plan is history so might have to start looking for another one........

 As Cape Town has been atlassed to death I was actually on holiday so did all the touristy things like Chapman's Peak Drive - I swear the water is a different colour on that side.................

Kirstenbosch, which as it was Tuesday was free for pensioners - there are some benefits......

.......and found these two Wild almonds (Brabejum stellatifolium - had to look it up) leaning on one another like a couple of drunks.  Talking of which they have built the Boomslang - an aerial walkway - that sways alarmingly as you walk along it.  They assure you that this is how it's meant to be - just like it's namesake, flexible.

I was unfortunately too late for the Namaqua flowers but did find great bushes of these weirdo's which I vaguely recall hail from Australia.

Strandfontein sewerage works were, as usual, a birding bonanza but the ponds were so full from recent rain that the flamingos had to swim for their supper.  Always great to see huge numbers of ducks of all shades as, apart from Yellowbills, they are largely absent from most of the countryside.

Driving back to Marina da Gama along the coast road I was intrigued to see fishermen hauling in a huge net and thought to myself that this was likely to get ugly, so pulled over to watch.  Imagine the surprise of seeing a couple of the guys pulling sharks out of the net and releasing them - even going so far as to redirect one that was swimming the wrong way.  Even more surprising was the number of smallies chucked back and near heart attack when the entire contents of the purse were also released, I assume because of size issues. And all this done with nary an official in sight.  After some gesticulating and shrugging the guys simply set out to do it all over again - marvelous.

Notices all round Muizenberg announced the forthcoming kite festival and seeing a number of things hanging in the breeze from the lounge one morning, I went along for a closer butchers.  Some very weird and wonderful things were wafting around bur really once a kite is up where's the fun?  Fortunately the incessant Cape Doctor which had been howling since I arrived, decided to take a couple of days off or they would all have been shredded.

An inexplicable desire to drive up DuToit's Kloof Pass saw me heading for Paarl and while driving back near Tygerberg I caught a glimpse what I thought was a novel view of the mountain.  Unable to get a clear shot from the highway I headed for suburbia but unfortunately this was the best I could do.

On a drive through Kommetjie and on round to Cape Point I stopped at the beach and took this, which reinforces the fact that I'm privileged to live in an amazingly beautiful country.  In fact driving to Cape Town from Sedgefield made me realize that there was absolutely no way I was going to reach it by Christmas, which was the plan as I'm meeting Sally in Dubai.  But who cares - plans are made to be broken.

Continuing to Cape Point I noticed fields strewn with white rocks which when seen up close turned out to be the charmingly named Cape Snow (Syncarpia vestita), sadly my camera battery died and the close up I took with the phone not up to my usual standard!

Cape Point was a nightmare crush of busloads of tourists so I only stayed long enough to get a picture of the mouth of False Bay.  Fish Hoek's roads are being dug up, which has been the case for as long as I can remember, so I spent an amusing half hour at a stop and go.  I recognized Rhodes' cottage even though the sign had been blown down and decided to take a nostalgia tour, as the last time I was there, I was ten.

Boyes Drive provides a spectacular view of Muizenberg Beach which is probably the best place in the world to learn to surf.  However I only found out on my last day there that you can hire wet suits and long boards, but have something to look forward to when I return.  I really need to visit the mysteriously named Casa Labia, which Jane informs me is not a bawdy house but named after an Italian family - imagine the jokes.