by Dominic Chadbon | Mar 12, 2021 | Fynbos |
Like a big hot engine that’s just been switched off, Cape Town’s dry summer begins to cool down in March. It’s still warm at times – often extremely – but clouds are hovering on the horizon and subtle movements are afoot in the fynbos. Plants have withstood the...
by Dominic Chadbon | Feb 23, 2021 | Fynbos |
Let’s first get the bad news out of the way: identification of fynbos plants is not easy. There are, as you know, thousands of plant species in the mountains of the Western Cape and they come from many different families – some of which you know (like the Iris, Daisy...
by Dominic Chadbon | Jan 20, 2021 | Nature |
What a place Cape Town must have been just a few hundred years ago! Herds of antelope and zebra grazed landscapes of forests and flowers, scattering in panic at the appearance of lions and wild dogs. There were hippos in the wetlands, rhinos in the scrublands, and so...
by Dominic Chadbon | Nov 18, 2020 | Table Mountain |
It’s pure coincidence that my hiking partner for Devil’s Peak is called Nick. And anyway, he’s not especially old though come to think of it he does have a bit of an impish grin. Be that as it may, Devil’s Peak, named after a fabled encounter between a Dutch settler –...
by Dominic Chadbon | Oct 20, 2020 | Fire & Fynbos |
Having collected 50 000 floral specimens over a lifetime of discovery, it’s fair to say that English naturalist William Burchell (1781 – 1863) knew a thing or two about plants. But even he was staggered by the flowers on Lion’s Head during a visit to Cape Town,...
