I had done a quick reconnaissance of Napier, the Overberg Renosterveld and fynbos before setting out on the field trip – but no amount of desk research prepares you for the open spaces of the Overberg!
Nomonde Mxhalisa, marketing manager of the WWF Nedbank Green Trust, had invited a delegation to view the work that the Trust is supporting. (What an excellent way to market your work and projects: fly journalists and writers out to see for themselves; their articles and documentaries make a worthy supplement/substitute for any adverts you may take out in the media!)
After a sumptuous breakfast at Suntouched Inn, we set off to Hansies River to meet the Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust team.
The reader will understand that Renosterveld is the least appreciated component in the Cape Floristic Region. Its (mostly) grasses and shrubs come off third best against its cousins: Fynbos and Strandveld’s Proteas, Ericas and Restios.
Renosterveld occurs on rich soil: no wonder it gave way to crops! And the Western Cape, which now produces most of South Africa’s wheat (DALRRD, 2017 and 2018), is perhaps first in line when it comes to claiming the “breadbasket of South Africa” title. Today however, less than 5% of the original Renosterveld remains, and its vegetation types are classified as Critically Endangered.
Renosterveld “is considered the richest bulb habitat on Earth”, writes the director of the Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust (ORCT), Dr Odette Curtis-Scott. It boasts a wide variety of mammals, birds, insects, reptiles, spiders and scorpions, amphibians and plants (more about these later). It also boasts the second person in the ORCT, Keir Lynch.
A fourth-generation South African of Irish descent, with blonde dreadlocks, earrings, and an informed and authoritative presence, Lynch is the Project Manager or the Watercourse Restoration Project run by the ORCT. After a brief discussion, we follow him to a tributary of the Kars river where we will hear about Heuningnes Redfin.
