Shipwreck Trail at Cape Point

By Diana Studer 

- gardening for biodiversity 

 in Cape Town, South Africa

We came to live in False Bay to hike at Cape Point and, since last November, this is the first time we did. It was a clear and very windy day last week. Yesterday a lightning strike started another fire above Simon's Town. Today's gentle soaking rain has ended that fire. 

The Shipwreck Trail circles around along the beach then up to the ridge. Head down into the wind. Next time, we'll try circling the other way with windblown sand NOT in our eyes.

Olifantsbos Bay

We were impressed by this family of Egyptian geese foraging along the shore. Five long leggedy teenagers swept up the rocks by each breaking wave. They landed a little higher, shook out their winglets and carried on regardless. The parents fly to a higher perch.

Egyptian geese

The Ungardener went down to the Nolloth shipwreck. The ship struck Albatross Rock and went aground in 1965. Both the crew and the cargo were rescued. Must be epic waves as there were a group of surfers in Olifantsbos Bay.

Nolloth shipwreck

I slowly continued to where the path turns up away from the beach. I went very slowly, we haven't hiked since Agulhas in August, then a LONG sedentary stretch in Porterville as we waited to sell the house. But last September we did get to the Sevilla Rock Art Trail and also Postberg and Darling. Last August was the last time we hiked in the Groot Winterhoek. Walking against a fierce wind, which almost, lifted me off my feet, makes very tired. Then I saw a group of 5 bontebok, kindly arranged across Here's The Path. I sat for a while on the path and watched them grazing on the fresh green. Also after the sad tortoises who didn't survive the fire, it was a joy to see two nibbling their way along.

The buck with one horn we saw from the car as we drove back to the gate.

Bontebok

This combination of fire in March, and winter rain in between, meant fire flowers and good grazing. That patch of green is approximately what one foot would destroy by not keeping to the paths, as we are asked to. Annuals and bulbs seizing their chance, shrubby proteas getting the next generation established.

Fynbos ecologist Tony Rebelo said that before the recent finds, this morel mushroom had been seen on the peninsula only about twice in the last 10 years. “A lot has come back, but the big [flower] displays we are likely to see next spring.”

Recovery after the March fire
That patch bottom right is aproximately
what one footstep would destroy
off the path

That slope we climbed was scattered with yellow and a few orange tall flowers Moraea ochroleuca which blooms 'mainly after fire'. Dancing in the wind and tricky to capture!

Moraea ochroleuca

We walked along the ridge named for the protea bushes. Pagoda flower Mimetes.  

Mimetes pagoda flower

I walk slowly, since even in this fire scathed landscape there is a huge variety of flowers. Delicately marked purple and white Babiana. Cobalt blue Lobelia. Just above the sand a tiny yellow wild iris Moraea. Lying on the sand an apricot Oxalis. Tucked in a sandy crevice between the rocks on the shore a yellow daisy.

Babiana, Moraea, daisy
Lobelia, Oxalis

At the end of the trail a steep path zigzags down among the rocks, and flowers. With a view across Schuster's Bay to Platkop and off to the left Slangkop lighthouse at Kommetjie.

Schuster's Bay and Platkop

As we drove back to the gate we stopped to watch a family of zebras. I think this is a half-grown young one.

Zebra foal

Home via the Good Hope Nursery, where I collected a Pelargonium fulgidum and an Adenandra for my blue pot.

Pictures by Diana and Jurg Studer
of Elephant's Eye on False Bay

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