June 20 and 21: Bio-Diversity Trips

I definitely made the right choice! Yesterday we trekked the veldt outside Stellenbosch in the foothills of the mountains. After getting out of class at 11, we had two hours off to eat lunch. The school provides a sack lunch to our class only, everyone else has to get food on their own! At 1 we met up and walked to the mountain. Our teacher and two post-docs, Dr. Roets, and Dr. Overlander, took us around the mountain for a few hours explaining the two main components of the Cape Floristic Region, (Fynbos and Rhenosterveldt) which are both found in the mountains around Stellenbosch. They showed us these little yellow flowers with stems that you could eat. They had a weird sour taste, almost lemony. Dr. Oberlander was the one who led the trip, and he pointed out lots of cool weird things about the plants. The area we were in was mostly Fynbos, but we were able to see a little bit of the much rarer Rhenosterveldt too.

 This is Charl, one of our South African students holding a chameleon that Dr. Roets found (that's Dr. Oberlander in the picture though). It was really cool! This picture was taken while we were still waiting for everyone to arrive. We hadn't even left yet and we were seeing cool things! He didn't really change color that I saw though.

 I got to hold him too. He grabbed onto my thumb. He wasn't slimy or anything, but his feet were really weird and sticky. Cape Dwarf Chameleons only have two toes (maybe all chameleons do, I don't know), so it's hands kind of reminded me of Mr. Spock. After we all got to hold him we released him back near the mountain. Charl named him Chris. At first we all thought that it was named after Chris, one of the Americans in the class, but Charl and Dr. Oberlander explained that in fact there is a famous South African musician named Chris Chameleon.













Here's a picture of the trail that we took yesterday on our hike.

 An example of Rhenosterveldt. It was found in the low laying areas around the foothills of the mountain.

 That's an olive plant. It doesn't look anything like the olives that we're used to though.

 They had us identify this plant by it's distinct look and smell. It's eucalyptus!
















This is a view of the mountain as we're heading back to town.

 This is a picture looking back over Stellenbosch as the sun is setting. It wasn't as dark as it looks in the picture though.

We only had a half day of lectures again today. In the afternoon while everyone else was going back to class we picked up our sack lunches that the school provided for us (grilled chicken!) and met up with Drs. Oberlander and Roets. The school sent a driver too. We got to take one of the Stellenbosch shuttle busses for a drive along the coast, stopping occasionally to look at interesting biological things. The road was really narrow and winding above a really steep cliff, and our driver was going so fast! We were bumping all over the place, it was pretty terrifying! The view was amazing though.

This is what I saw when I looked out my window! We drove through the town of Gordon's Bay on the other side of False Bay from Cape Point. In the distance we could see Cape Town and Table Mountain.












This is a piece of Strandveldt that we got to examine. Luckily the weather was so good again today! It was windy but only a little cool. I didn't even need a jacket.

 Here's the other side of the road. Going up the mountain is some more Fynbos. Fynbos is dependent of fire for survival. It must burn down every several decades or the Fynbos plants will begin to die out. This area was burned around five years ago.

 There's our van parked by the cliffs.

 Another picture that I took out my window as we were driving.

 We turned off from the coast and drove into the Kogelburg mountains

Typical Fynbos plants.

 There was nobody out where we were. You can see our van way down there. There was nobody else on the road!

 We had to hike through the veldt up some of the hills. It got pretty dense in some places, and I was really glad that I wore jeans. In spots it was ankle-high, but in others the plants could be knee-high! I kept thinking about snakes. "You don't have to worry about the mamba snakes here, they're found mainly in Free State and Eastern Cape and up." Dr. Oberlander told us "You're much more likely in the Western Cape to meet a Puff Adder or Cape Cobra". Great! Luckily they're not at all common near populated areas (where we were), and don't like to live near the ocean, so we were ok.


We got back as the others were getting back from their classes too. I think most of them are jealous that they have to sit in lecture all day while we get to go out hiking! We tried to look for whales and dolphins, our teachers told us it was the right time of year to see them, but we never saw any.

Right before we got to Stellenbosch though we had to stop and fill up gas. It was weird! It was like going back in time to the 1950's or something. There was a guy waiting at the pump. The driver gave him cash and told him to fill it up. While the attendant filled the tank he cleaned the windshield too! I asked Charl if that was common. He told me that they don't have any self-servace petrol stations in South Africa, all of them are manned by the attendants!

Anyway, it's Tuesday night! Quiz night!