Fynbos on The Singemonkey

April 05, 2024

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 17:08:21 +0000

@kanesnaps and I went out to see the effects of the summer fires in December (if I recall). It was amazing to see how the protea flower clusters had opened up to release their seeds and how there were already some green shoots in the ashes mere days later. Also impressive were the huge shards of sandstone blasted out of the boulders like onion layers where the water dumped by helicopters hit the searing hot stone.

August 06, 2023

Sun, 06 Aug 2023 11:59:32 +0000

It’s the first time I’ve done this walk since March. So much going on with the cat boi going missing and then getting injured. I decided to take my camera. I just can’t get good results with a phone although some people can. I’ve also changed laptops and still haven’t sorted out my photos again. So I edited these on my phone.

October 10, 2022

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 20:44:57 +0000

@kanesnaps and I went heroically up the mountain by a new route (for me) and found that rock that looks like a camel from certain angles.

It was lovely up there, where the traffic noise suddenly disappears and you’re in this magic park in the sky filled with the astonishing diversity of plants in the fynbos botanical region.

Kane almost got bitten by a very unfortunate young puff adder that had been run over (almost certainly by accident since it was so well camouflaged on the road - such that Kane nearly didn’t see it too). Luckily some guys working up there arrived in a truck and ended it’s suffering with a sharp spade since it was way too injured to possibly survive.

July 24, 2022

Sun, 24 Jul 2022 18:40:15 +0000

This is from a few days ago when @withoutaleaf and I were up on Plum Pudding Hill. I just wanted to post this to remind myself of this handful of mature silver trees that survived the fire. The trunks were scorched but they came through unlike most.

I mentioned that silver trees are hard to photograph. It’s because the top side of the leaf has a gorgeous metallic shine thanks to a profusion of fine hairs. But the underside is a deep green. In photographs this usually gives the impression that they’re a kind of grey green tree. But up close and personal, they’re just spectacular.

July 24, 2022

Sun, 24 Jul 2022 18:30:52 +0000

Second mountain expedition of the day. Kane (@kanesnaps) led Junko (@junko28a) and me up Kalk Bay at a blistering pace. I worked out it must be over twenty years since I last went up this route. And that’s a shame because it’s so lovely. The vegetation and landscape transforms so quickly - you’re rapidly surrounded by the most varied and beautiful fynbos - and the contrast between the white sand and the acquamarine of False Bay is a balm for the soul. And so lovely to share the mountain with much loved people. Second time in a week!

July 24, 2022

Sun, 24 Jul 2022 09:44:20 +0000

I’m heading out thaddaway this afternoon for a different bit of mountain. Pic 2: cork trees really demonstrating why that bark we find so useful evolved. The fire swept through them but all survived in their protective coats. These aren’t indigenous trees but I hope they preserve a couple of the big ones. Pic 3: to my delight, @withoutaleaf joined me on my mountain jaunt the other day. She pointed out the profusion of silver tree saplings that are coming up everywhere after the fire. I’d managed not to notice. Fire is, of course, part of the protea life cycle - hence the name. I can’t describe how beautiful silver trees are. And they’re hard to photograph for a number of reasons. But in real life they’re like something Tolkien and Doctor Seuss would come up with by the fireside after several glasses of wine.

July 04, 2022

Mon, 04 Jul 2022 08:53:10 +0000

Missed the mountain on the weekend thanks to weather. Got up long before dawn to get up there early. Was delayed by minibus taxis blocking the green light. Hurrah for private enterprise over public services! Got there though.

No cultists on a Monday. I found I somewhat missed them.

Thinking of my sibling who’s experiencing impaired vision due to COVID - a rare but not undocumented effect. Covid is real, it’s still here, and it’s still a serious disease. Holding thumbs.

June 19, 2022

Sun, 19 Jun 2022 10:45:05 +0000

I tried ascending past the blockhouse after a comment from @suhairsolomon until the scramble gave way to an alarming verticality and I thought I should check the route and come back next time.

Notes: the lower slopes are dotted with cults - usually with one person shouting excitedly. But the one I passed closest to were spread out about 4m from each other all saying different stuff rapid fire. As Buffy The Vampire Slayer put it: “Note to self: Religion… freaky.”

June 11, 2022

Sat, 11 Jun 2022 10:10:53 +0000

Despite having some expensive sunglasses ruined by the wind ripping them off my shirt and skidding them - lenses down - for 50m across a tarred road, the irritation I woke up with couldnt stand up to Table Mountain Park at dawn. This has to be among the best city parks on Earth.

I’m not quite fit enough to run up the steep mountainside to the “King’s Blockhouse” (a grandiose name for a very tiny little fort) so, since I was scrambling anyway, I could take my camera. I was remembering how this seemed like quite a big hike even as a teenager. I was clearly very unfit then.

February 08, 2020

Sat, 08 Feb 2020 09:54:50 +0000

Certain adventures in my youth impressed on me how fynbos details track seemingly infinitely in - gross structural detail reveals smaller structures which reveal near-micro structures and so ad infinitum. This particular one has stems on the “flowers” (if they are flowers and not clusters of flower-arrays as I believe some fynbos flowers really are) with fine spiky leaves that make them look like the braided wire insulation on old fashioned electrical wiring.

January 25, 2020

Sat, 25 Jan 2020 20:53:48 +0000

I’m having one of my oldest and dearest friends, @furiousgreencloud, to stay. It’s always been too long. I’m having a knee issue so we took the cable car up and skulked among the fynbos on a beautiful windless evening atop the mountain.

September 08, 2017

Fri, 08 Sep 2017 18:33:09 +0000