Koggelberg new route hike : Unfortunately this walk had to be cancelled due to wet conditions

Seed planting : 7 children and 3 adults joined Andreas on this lovely morning to learn about our beautiful trees. Each child got a hip pouch to use to put the seeds in. We went on a walk in the reserve, looking for tree seeds to collect. We found 6 different species. Bags filled with seeds we walked to the nursery. The first thing we had to do is to sort all the seeds, each kind on a different heap. Then trays were filled with soil and Andreas explained how seeds must be planted. After all the trays were filled and planted, the watering cans were filled and the newly planted seeds were watered.

We will keep an eye on our trees. Every once in a while we will check that no weeds are growing in the trays. Once the seedlings are big enough, we will pot them. If trees are big enough, we will use them in a rehabilitation project.

Wagon trail – Sir Lowry’s Pass:
On this lovely sunny morning, 3 children and 4 adults joined Andreas on a wonderful walk up the old wagon trail. It was interesting to hear where the wagons were prepared before the big trek over the mountains, which route they took and that there was another camp at the top of the pass for oxen to rest. We saw the wagon tracks carved into the stone. It is amazing to think they managed to get up that rocky pass.

We had the most lovely views over false bay at the top. We also looked at the cannons that are still stationed at the top, which were used to inform farmers on the other side of the mountain when ships arrived.

Owl box building: Postponed to coming term

Bird ringing: On this chilly winters morning we joined the bird ringers at the Nature Reserve. It was difficult to put up the nets with freezing fingers! But, it was all worth it. We caught 9 birds. The bird ringers showed us how they carefully take the birds out of the nets, put them in a bag and then they are weighed, ringed, measured, primary feathers counted and then released. They had interesting stories to tell of birds that they had caught that were ringed as fledglings in Finland. They then caught one here in Strand that was only 3 months old and had already flown all the way from Finland! Next time we do bird ringing, we want to join them on a Friday evening at the beach, where they catch terns.

Waterfall hike (Jonkershoek) : Due to rain this walk had to be cancelled

Snow camp – Hex river mountain camp
Fully packed for two days, we arrived at the Fairy Glen Estate on Friday afternoon. The group consisted of 5 children (the youngest 5 years old) and 5 adults. Here Bertie Leeuwner and his wife, Mountain Club members of the Worcester section, met us and walked the first part with us.

On our way up we were greeted by the lovely smell of buchu. The proteas were gorgeous. It was interesting how each species grew in a specific location. Lower down there was a patch of rose sugarbushes and repens. Higher up, where the soil has good drainage, but enough moisture is present, the protea magnifica was just starting to produce flowers. Still higher up were stunted protea cynaroides (king proteas). Thomas and Mateo saw a poisonous grass snake, which had most probably been disturbed by us.
It was a long walk up, gaining nearly 1000 meters in height. Mateo, the youngest member, chattered happily all the way up, being interested in everything around him. The children couldn’t resist collecting precious stones. Beautiful coloured and layered sandstone, quartz veined stones, crystals, rusted brittle stones etc. I was shocked when I felt the weight of Tobias’s daypack, filled with stones!

Thomas Hut

After about 4 hours of walking, we could at last see the stone hut, surrounded by high mountains and deep gorges. There were some snow patches higher up the mountain. At the hut, we unpacked and prepared our food. After dinner we moved the mattresses outside on the veranda, to look at the night sky. It was amazing to see how clearly the Milky
Way was visible. A telescope would have been fantastic!

It was wonderful waking up on Saturday morning with mountains all around us. It was amazingly quiet. Not a breeze could be felt. Not even a bird could be heard. We saw no dassies, even though there was enough evidence that they were around. No insects, nor lizards sunning themselves. It felt like being in deserted winter mountains, although it was as warm as a summer day.
We packed our snacks and water to go and explore the area. We followed a footpath in the direction of Fonteintjiesberg. On the way we explored the rock outcrops. At one outcrop found jawbones and fur of dassie and young antelope. It must have been the dining area of Verreaux Eagle. Further and further we explored, the children just wanting to go on: ‘We’re not at the top yet,
so we’ll have to go on!’ they told us.

Andreas saw a layer in the mountains that looked like the Ceres formation. It was a dark brown layer, high up in the mountains. Unfortunately it was too far away to go there. If this is so, there are chances of finding fossils in this layer. We definitely would like to come back to look at this layer.

Walking down we collected dead protea bushes to make a fire that night.

Later the afternoon we explored the river. We found a lovely cave further down, with the most wonderful view over the mountains and a waterfall flowing over it. Some of us decided we want to sleep there that night. The children had a lovely time playing hide and seek in the restios. All of a sudden there was a loud roaring noise to be heard. Children scattered out of the bushes in all directions. Luckily it was only Andreas, pretending to be a Gorilla!

That evening we made a fire from the dead protea bushes. The bushes burnt out quite soon, so the children went to look for more dead plant material in the area. They found a heap of cut, dried slangbos bushes. This lit up easily and, for a short time, lit up the sky. Braaing their marshmallows and feeding the fire, kept them busy until night time.

All tired from a day full of excitement, we went to sleep in the cave. We were sheltered from the wind, but the only problem was getting used to the thundering sound of the waterfall!

The next morning we packed everything, cleaned out the hut and started our walk back down. With sadness we looked back to the stone hut which had been our home for two wonderful nights.

While having a snack at ‘Lemoendraai’, suddenly a huge black shape appeared, as if from nowhere. We looked and saw two Verreaux (black) eagles gliding past us. Awestruck we watched these majestic creatures, elegantly gliding past!

A little further on, we noticed a cave not too far away. We left our rucksacks and scrambled up. The cave wasn’t very big. As Jeff and Tobias squeezed in, they saw that the sides were covered with quartz crystals. What a sight! Andreas told us that this cave must have been under very high pressure for those crystals to be formed. We found a few loose rocks with crystals which the children could take home.

At a rock fall we saw a huge rock that looked like a huge lump of metal. It was not eroded at all. We tried to take off a piece, but no way, this metal rock was much too hard to break!

Then it was time to go back to the cars. Not only had this been an unforgettable adventure, but also a life enriching experience! We will definitely be back!

Walking in the Hex river mountains