Murray, VWS crew leader, exits the Squirrel

The latest fire that swept through the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve last week was nothing short of disastrous. Young veld burnt again and all the eleven-year old veld has been destroyed, so that, in the words of a nature conservation official, “everything between Kleinmond and Paarl” is uniformly less than 3 years old. For biodiversity in Kogelberg, which is not known as “the jewel of the Cape Floral Kingdom” for nothing, this is potentially disastrous as the floral mosaic that ensures diversity has gone, and it means that recently fires have been occurring too frequently. Most of these fires are caused by humans, deliberately or otherwise.

On Saturday I was part of a Volunteer Wildfire Services (VWS) Jonkershoek crew that responded to the fire call-out. We were deployed to Kleinmond and waited there until 4:30 pm before being airlifted, along with the local CapeNature firefighting team, to the peak above Heuningklip. The fire, which had orginally started near Kleinmond and swept north-west through Kogelberg to reach the coast between Rooiels and Kogel Bay, was backing up down to Kleinmond again as the wind clocked around. See the Google Earth track of our fire-fight and photos below.

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Or download the kmz file for viewing in Google Earth

When I saw the fireline, I wondered what chance we had. It ran east-west from the peak east of Kleinmond, down into a deep ravine north of Heuningklip farm, and up the other side, and was creeping southward towards the town. Anyway we worked our way south from the LZ and then started to fight the fire down a ridge to the kloof. The CapeNature team was phenomenal. They hit that fireline like Dervishes. With the help of the chopper we had the fire out down to the kloof in about 1.5 hours, a distance of some 2 km. The pilot of the Eurocopter Squirrel was an ace. In windless conditions he put out scores of metres of fire with each run, whereupon the combined CapeNature and VWS teams would suppress another section below that. The VWS team learnt a lot about effective beating and teamwork I think.

The fireline down to the kloof and up the other side. Click for larger sizes.

The Squirrel lifts another bucket over Kleinmond

Next time you see a scrawny little guy in thick, orangy gear with a beater over his shoulder, give him respect. He’s a CapeNature firefighter. These guys have been on duty every second day for four weeks now, fighting fires through the night. And they’re damned good at it. Absolute machines and proud of what they do. If it wasn’t for them the Cape Floral Kingdom would be more of a charred wreck than what it is today. I admire these guys and all the other people that do this thankless job for a living – unreservedly.

What's left of the area around the Palmiet

CapeNature team on the fireline

The long isolation of the Kogelberg area has helped to protect its floral wealth and keep it clear of alien vegetation, and today the reserve represents perhaps the finest example of mountain fynbos in the western Cape. It has a species list of 1 654 plant species, of which about 150 are endemic. Many spectacular members of the protea family occur in the reserve.

Source: CapeNature

As the VWS prepared to withdraw from the bottom of the kloof, the CapeNature team fought the fire up the opposite slope and disappeared into the night, their headlamps bobbing after the crackling flames. There was a mild scare as we bundu-bashed our way through really thick, tall bush down the kloof to our vehicles when we noticed a flare-up behind us. If it followed us with any speed we would be facing a big problem, but we were relieved to see it race up the opposite side of the kloof. However, the fire was now below the CapeNature team, undoing their hard work. We understood later that they may have lost the line because they had to backtrack.

Chopper does its thing

The Squirrel wheels away

Back at Incident Control we were able to enjoy water and food prepared by some unknown samaritans, while all the time wondering how the other team was doing as we surveyed the fiery mountainside. Eventually we were deployed to the golf course to assist the fire and rescue tenders as they stopped the approaching wall of flame short of some powerlines and the fairways. While there we noticed some wonderful people rescuing the small fauna that was fleeing out of the fynbos, including tortoises and chameleons, and lent a hand. I was happy to find and rescue an adult tortoise from an awful death. But I couldn’t help thinking of all the many thousands of small creatures that met their end over these days.

There was a tragic corollary to this story when an exhausted fireman was killed after he took a nap front of his tender and was accidentally run over by his comrades at the golf course. Terribly tragic with so many other dangers about.

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2. Hiking in Kogelberg The Kogelberg Biosphere and Nature Reserve is my playground. When...
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The first time I saw the phrase “Eden to Addo” it spoke to me. Then when I saw it juxtaposed with “mega-hike” the synapses fired in my brain. The concept was so evocative I had to go.

Eden is the slightly pretentious name for the Knysna region – a lost Eden if you will – that is suffering rampant coastal development. But it is famous for its once mighty forests and the forest elephants, some of whom seem to be hanging on in silent isolation in their shrinking refuge. The idea of walking through these dark, but not so deep, remnant forests appealed to me.

Or download the Google Earth track

Addo is the location of the Addo Elephant National Park, a conservation success story and refuge to the last of the Eastern Cape herds of pachyderms. Addo is also on its way to becoming one of the largest and most diverse national parks on the subcontinent, situated at the junction of a number of biomes.

But what was really exciting was the idea of traversing the Baviaanskloof wilderness area and many Cape fold mountain ranges including the Tsitsikamma, Langkloof, Couga, Baviaanskloof, Groot Winterhoek and Klein Winterhoek ranges. I would find that the anticipatory excitement bore no relationship to the experience of walking through these places.

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The Mega-hikers

To spend 16 days in close proximity with a dozen or so others, sometimes under trying circumstances, without even a hint of conflict suggests that the mega-hikers – those who walked all 400 hard kilometres – were a special kind of people. The mega-hike had clearly selected for them – an insight that is unsurprising in hindsight. Over the course of two weeks, walking in quiet conversation with individuals through some of the most awesome landscapes, one learns a few things about them.

Most have followed alternative trajectories through the firmament of life. Not for them the traditional corporate careers or sedentary retirements. They have done so much in terms of life experience, travel and adventure that it makes me wonder what I’ve been doing for the last thirty or so years.

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I was also struck by the spiritual and emotional approach to nature of some. I live and work in a very rational world, surrounded by people with similar traits to mine, so the experience was interesting and unusual. The best description for many of the mega-hikers’ world view that I could find is “biophilia” – a hypothesis that suggests that Nature speaks to our emotions; that our deep affiliation with Nature is fundamental, a product of our biological evolution.

The Landscape

My abiding memory is the sheer immensity of the largely unpopulated landscape. Undulating hills, mountains and valleys in all directions, endless folds, for days on end. Do the Google Earth fly-through and you will start to get an idea of what I mean. One thinks of the Southern Cape as a landscape under human pressure, but it is only the coastal strip that is being squeezed. It is both amazing and a relief to see such vast wilderness so close to burgeoning populations.

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The term “diversity” also gained real meaning as we walked through varying vegetation. I can only describe it in terms of textures – the green cotton clouds of the forest, the velvet folds of fynbos, a tangled quilt of colour in the Baviaanskloof and the spiky flesh of the thicket.

Tenderfeet

This was one of the toughest things that I’ve done. I have never had bruised soles before. After leaving Soetkraal and walking in the rain, my wet feet had been suitably tenderised. The next day’s long march on hard-packed dirt road did the rest. That night at our camp in a Langkloof valley I couldn’t bare to stand on my feet. They were on fire. Over the course of five or so days, and helped by a good decision to walk the Baviaanskloof in strops, they gradually improved.

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I thought that I would philosophise on the hike, solve some major problems. I didn’t; I thought about nothing. I simply lived in the moment, looked, listened, smelt, felt, marvelled in that immediate sphere, in my moving bubble. Afterwards there was that dopamine-induced satisfaction, that feeling of languid wellbeing.

Places

Pisgoedvlakte (“good piss plain”). When we walked across this plateau after a sharp climb up the pass from Rooihoek in the Baviaanskloof, I wondered about the origins of the name. My father-in-law, a Koo valley farmer and Afrikaner, solved the riddle by explaining that there are in fact quite a few similarly named features in the country – and all of them are located at the top of steep mountain passes. The teams of oxen would be outspanned after the strenuous climb for a “good piss”. And so we live and learn…

Eden to Addo Mega-hike slideshow

Many of these photos were taken by Lara Husted.

The Eden to Addo Conservation Corridor Initiative

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The Palmiet River winds through the core of the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve. The nature reserve protects the most pristine and diverse fynbos in the Cape Floral Kingdom. There are a number of hikes of varying length in the reserve, but a favourite is a walk up the river. It’s very easy, but beautiful. How beautiful? Here’s a taste…

Kogelberg is now part of a World Heritage Site in recognition of its biodiversity value. The flower photos were taken on 7 November 2004, during a late spring in the Cape.

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Booking the Whale Trail is hard to do – it has become massively popular.

Potberg summit

So when I got a booking for the 17th, it looked perfect for the last 5 days of the school holidays. The dates would enable my daughters, wife, friends who are schoolteachers, etc. to go. It was not to be. Firstly, all hiking buddies dipped out, leaving me with potentially the most expensive hike of my life, and secondly, nobody told me the start date isn’t the first day of walking. So we rocked up at Potberg hut, late at night, with the rain bucketing down after a hairy drive on muddy roads, to find all mattresses taken and a full party of hikers wondering why their first night’s rest was being disturbed. My mistake. Luckily my pals hadn’t come – I would never have lived that down. So we spent an uncomfortable night in a cold bakkie.

But it was prescient perhaps, because it rained the next day, and climbing Potberg in mist and rain would have been less than pleasant. We resolved to hike the last two days in one

Breede River from Potberg

- they looked short enough – so that I could get the girls back for the start of school.

Day 2 – I mean Day 1 - dawns pristine, crisp and clear. The Potberg climb rewards us with spectacular views of the Breede River valley as it emerged from the morning mist. The walk along the watershed alternatively reveals the Breede and Grootkloof, agriculture and fynbos.

After Melkhout River (study the photo of the rockpool on the foldout map, else you’ll pick the wrong stream to lunch at), the second climb to cross the hills to Cupidoskraal is a bit of a slog, making sight of the hut welcome. Like all the others, it’s a great hut – luxurious by hiking trail standards.

Day 2: A short, sharp ascent is followed by a scenic cruise along the watershed down to the limestone hills verging the coast.

Descent to Cupidoskraal

The day is windless and cloudless. The Klipdrifsfonteinspruit in the valley is but a memory of a spruit. The valley is infested with Port Jackson (Acacia saligna), rooikrans (Acacia cyclops) and black wattle (Acacia mearnsii), a bit of Oz in Africa. It’s a lesson in environmental degradation. Where the rooikrans has been cleared, A. saligna is rising like hairs on a dog.

The approach to Noetsie is spectacular. Two whales are performing only 100m from our lapa. At dusk they disappear – run silent, run deep. The plastic flotsam washed up from the sea is awful. John Dunn and his family of 1915, would have seen a more pristine Noetsie.

Day 3: The cliff-top walk to Hamerkop is reminiscent of the Otter Trail, but arguably even better. Caves, cathedrals and cliffs. And whales. One breaches continuously below us, only

about 150m away. A languid half-twist,

Heather on the ecotone

a crooked smile, one eye, white belly…smack! They seem to be heading for Noetsie.

Heather and friends claim a klipspringer sighting. I wonder at what malcontents see fit to shatter the glazed, clay trail markers.

Hamerkop hut is different again, with its “wolweneus” gable and an upstairs verandah. The accompanying party of 5 (later 6) is excellent company. Gawie has everybody in stitches at will.

The huts are outstanding, even luxurious. Renewable resource and energy use is a feature. Solar power, wastewater and sewerage recycling, rooikrans firewood, separation of waste, etc.

Days 4 & 5: We leave before dawn, having to do two days in one, and finish early enough. It’s beautiful, walking on a deserted beach at first light.

We reach Vaalkrans in the late morning. Vaalkrans

Approach to Noetsie

is a stone and thatch fishing cottage, located atop a cliff and cave, and opposite a cormorant breeding colony.

It would be a great place to spend a stormy night. It reminds me of those boys’ adventure books I read once, of smugglers’ caves along the Cornwall coast, the Olde Sea Dog Inn, pints of ale and long yarns. [Three years later I do spend that night].

Unfortunately, we have to press on for Koppie Alleen. As we get closer, the whale density increases. You can hear them blow, a sound like failed whistles.

At 1 o’clock we’re at the vehicle. A truly magnificent trail it was. I will be back, even if it is only to spend a night at Vaalkrans.

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