Report Back #39

Stop Press! 13 000 to 15 000 cedars! – read all about it below!

Photo ©Geoff Spiby

1. Save R54 and order Hike the Cederberg #2 now ...

2. Counting cedars – how we did it [and get your free kml file]

3. My Cederberg Story – Olive Nieuwoudt

4. Kabouterland: more great stuff from Dawie Burger


1. Save R54 and order Hike the Cederberg #2 now ...

Hike the Cederberg #2 is at the printer ... with nearly 200 more names, quite a few path ‘tweaks’ and 13437 trees – mostly cedars – correctly located.
As a special offer to all on our blog list, you can pre-order and get a 20% discount [=R54] if you order before 31 October.
# by Credit card or SID – go to www.slingsbymaps.com and order the map through our server, MonsterPay. After you’ve entered your name and address, etc, a screen will open which includes [in rather small print] the line ‘Do you have a gift certificate or promotional code?’
Enter this code in the space provided: HikeC#2
Click on Redeem Gift certificate
... and you’ll get a 20% discount on this – and any other maps you order.
# by EFT – email peter@slingsby.capetown for banking details.

2. Counting cedars – how we did it [and get your free kml file]

Since our previous report on counting and locating the Cederberg’s surviving cedars we found better quality shots that greatly enhanced the process – so here’s a photo-essay of the process.

a. We saved the relevant set of shots from Google Earth Pro. If the areas we wanted were under cloud we went back to earlier shots.

a. ‘Raw’ Google Earth screenshot

b. We used an auto-adjust to enhance the pics

b. enhanced Google Earth screenshot

c. We imported the pics into our graphics programme, geo-positioning them correctly. Then we ringed all the trees we could positively ID as living cedars.

c. identifiable cedars ringed

This was easiest in areas burned in the 2013 fires, because the cedars show up as distinct green dots; there’s an area near Krakadouw which has not burned and here the process was difficult; we may have selected some incorrect species –  affecting perhaps 200 trees. Nevertheless, the cedars are usually a distinctive colour, and their shadows always give them away.
Where possible we correlated these pics with photos taken from the nearest paths: Matt Britton’s 19000-photo collection was useful here! These often revealed that what looks like a ‘dead’ tree in the air photo in fact has green leaves on at least a part of the tree.
We also used Rudolf Andrag’s 1970s map as a check that we were indeed probably seeing cedars.

d. red circles converted into semi-transparent green dots, 0.6 mm diameter

d. Our red circles were then converted into 0.6 mm green dots for inclusion on the map.
A small problem here is that a scatter of trees may appear as a bit of a closed-canopy forest on the map: because of the scale the 0.6 mm dots overlap quite often. However, if we had made the trees their correct scale [often less than 0.1 mm] they’d be invisible on the map!

e. how the scatter of tree-dots appear on the final map; keyed as ‘Trees: mostly cedars’

e. If you would like a free kml file that you can import into Google Earth and that geo-locates the 13 437 trees we found, please email me at peter@slingsby.capetown. Our distribution of trees – especially cedars – needs to be checked in the field and if you’d like to contribute your observations we’ll consider holding a free edition #3 map for you one day in the future!

3. My Cederberg Story – Olive Nieuwoudt

‘My Cederberg Story’ by Olive Nieuwoudt is the Cederberg book we have all been waiting for. Privately published by Olive’s daughter, Susan de la Bat, it’s available from Susan [email me for her details] for only R100. That’s too inexpensive, Susan! It’s 220 pages rich with information and liberally sprinkled with photographs, and any one of us would easily pay R200 for this fascinating book.
Olive’s first visit to Kromrivier was in 1954, and she spent the rest of her life in the Cederberg, until moving to Clanwilliam a few years ago. The book is a wonderful accumulation of her experiences, her insights, and research into the origins of the farms and their families.
After a chapter on the history of the Nieuwoudt family Olive describes the history and the stories around the four ‘core’ farms that shaped her life married to Rens Nieuwoudt – Vogelfontein, Matjiesrivier, Kromrivier and Dwarsrivier. She includes her own story and how she and her family left Britain as wartime ‘refugees’, her childhood in Cape Town, and her discovery of Kromrivier [and of Rens, of course!] In the next section she expands the boundaries of her tale to include Driehoek, Algeria, Grootrivier, Nuwerus, the Oasis, Keurbosfontein and even two farms that have long gone – Perdekloof and Eikeboom. She ends – essentially – with the story of Wupperthal, the Cederberg village and mission which has shaped the lives and the past of so many of the families who live and work in the Cederberg.

Some of the fascinating historic photos in Olive’s book

Two very minor criticisms – one understands the need to limit the number of pages of any book, but quite a few of the photos are very small and the detail is often hard to see. My other [small!] quibble is that although everyone’s date of birth is meticulously recorded, we’re not always given a date when events took place. For example, we know that Gerrit Nieuwoudt was born in 1799; he gave Matjiesrivier to his daughter [born 1825] and her husband [born 1811], but we don’t know when they took over the farm.
Another more serious grouse is that there is no index, which would be so very useful in a book of this kind.
But those small things aside, for only R100 you get a very fine contribution to the literature and history of the Cederberg. Olive’s Foreword ends with these words: “The Cederberg has shaped my heart, my soul and my life. I hope that as you read My Cederberg Story, I will play some part in making it part of your life too.” Thank you so much, Olive – your book does just that!
Olive and Petrus Hanekom [‘Diepspore’, see here ] have set the ball rolling with their personal histories of the Cederberg. Let’s hope that more of the Ceder People will follow suit!

4. Kabouterland: more great stuff from Dawie Burger

Dawie Burger and his friend Geoff Spiby went in serch of Alex Basson’s legendary ‘Kabouterland Cave’. They could not find the cave but we finish off here with a photo essay of some of Geoff’s magnificent photos of the Kabouterland area. These pics, please note, are all © to Geoff Spiby.

Alles van die beste
Kaartman September 2015

Report Back #38

1. Caves located at last!

2. New names for new maps

3. Laurie’s Hell: the true story ...

4. Cedars: how many are there?

5. ... and a pear tree without a partridge ...

6. ... and last but not least, not a Cederberg koringkriek!

1. Caves located at last!

Great news is that Alex Basson’s ‘Engelsman se Grot’ has been found! The intrepid Dawie Burger and George van der Watt went on a cave hunt recently and have located the cave, used by British Soldiers during the South African War, 1899–1902. The soldiers were responsible for the Pakhuis Pass blockhouse and the off-duty troepies were billeted in the cave. The blockhouse was blown up after the war – its remains litter the rocky koppie behind the parking area, at the top of the pass. The cave is still there and Dawie picked up some old bullets, bully-beef tins, etc. There were slangbos beds in the cave, suggesting that someone else is still using it as an occasional billet – it’ll be clearly shown on Hike the Cederberg #2, out fairly soon.

Engelsman se Grot: photos by Dawie Burger

Alex’s own cave, Bassonsklip near the Anvil and the Swemgat below Skerpioensberg, has also been a bit of a mystery – but no more. Alex confessed that when he helped compile the 1981 Forestry Dept map of the ’Berg he deliberately placed ‘his’ cave in the wrong place – along with several other details that, in those days, he felt should remain secret. When we came to editing the new 2013 map Alex, no longer secretive, could not locate the cave with any precision; but Jacques van Rooi of CapeNature, Algeria, has come to the rescue. There’s a clear path to the cave, nogal, suggesting that plenty of hikers know where it is – they just don’t know its proper name! Well, that cave will be correctly placed on Hike the C #2, too.

2. New names for new maps

We recently completed another name-gathering trip, with great inputs from André and Jaen Marais, Arrie Beukes, Oom Joffré Esterhuizen, Johan van der Westhuizen and Dawie Burger. Over 100 new names will appear for the first time on Hike the Cederberg #2, amongst them the true origin of the name ‘Gabriël’s Pass’ – it’s named quite simply after the angel-shaped rock pillar known to the residents of Langkloof as ‘Gabriël’! – so there it is.
[and I’ve lost the picture!]

3. Laurie’s Hell: the true story ...

When we compiled our Cederberg Names blog we were tempted to include, under ‘Laurie se Hel’, the story we’d been told of a lost Eselbank forester named Laurie who disappeared into that rocky maze and never came out ... which goes to show that the Cederberg has just as many k**stories as anywhere else! The real origin [which means reverting to the English name, because Laurie was an Engelsman], is told by his son:
“You cannot imagine my surprise when my brother sent me the link to your site (and to this page: http://cederbergnames.blogspot.fr/2013/07/l.html). You mention “Laurie’s Hell” and wonder about the provenance of the name. I thought my brother and I were the only ones who even knew about Laurie’s Hell, as it was named after my father Laurence Maister (known to everyone as Laurie). He went hiking with one of the original official surveyors of the Cederberg. This might have been in the 40s or 50s. If my memory serves, the man’s name was Ellis Spektor (sp? I also stand to be corrected on the name), and when they got to this location and after struggling through it, my father remarked that it was hellish (or some other remark of that sort). As a kind of in-joke (I suspect) between them, the surveyor christened the place “Laurie’s Hell” on the surveys and that’s how it got its name. I have one of the original survey maps with the place underlined in my home, and up until today thought that it was just some remote area of the Cederberg. I did not know that it was as even vaguely known to outsiders, having not been to the Cederberg in a long time. Anyway, that’s the story. My father died in 2008 and it is really lovely to read of this small memento of his life in the wider world. Best regards Nigel Maister.”

A tiny part of Laurie’s Hell ...

4. Cedars: how many are there?

Everyone knows that the Clanwilliam cedars, the cedars of the Cederberg, are a ‘threatened’ species: past exploitation and the ravages of fire have massively reduced their numbers. But how many are left? Ask around and you’ll get answers from a few hundred to a few thousand. We recently completed a survey for the new Hiking map [Hike the Cederberg #2], using the most up to date air photos we could find. The first surprise was that one year after the Dec 2013 fire the great majority of trees in the affected area show up as distinct green dots [the few dead ones show up as rusty brown]. This is indeed good news, implying perhaps that the surviving trees are mainly growing in secure, fire-proof places. The second surprise was the number of dots. We did not count the trees in the remaining cedar plantations, nor those in the occasional surviving dense copse, and of course we could not detect any seedlings this way. We may have also counted in the odd large waboom or Maytenus, but we tried to be super-careful and, when in doubt, left out that dot. The total area covered by the Hiking map produced over eleven thousand ‘cedar dots’ – and it would seem safe to add a fair percentage to that for uncounted trees ...

A gorgeous cedar, on the shale band above Eselbank: pic by Dawie Burger

But the real bad news is the botanical name. For years we’ve affectionately embraced Widdringtonia cedarbergensis ... but here’s the shock. A careful search of the world’s herbaria has failed to turn up a single ‘type specimen’ – the absolutely first-ever collection of any species – for W. cedarbergensis. And unless one is found, the botanical name will, according to the time-honoured international rules, have to change to Widdringtonia wallichii.
Can’t see that catching on, myself. Sorry, Mr Wallich.

5. ... and a pear tree without a partridge ...

One of Dawie and George’s explorations revealed the ruins of Peerboom, one of the original subsistence farms from which the residents were callously removed more than a hundred years ago. The great thing about the find is that the ruins are still there. When the Wilderness was proclaimed over-zealous officials attempted to remove all trace of human habitation – they demolished the old Welbedacht and other farmhouses, razing them to the ground [and by all local accounts, stealing all the old cedarwood beams, lintels and floorboards – national corruption is nothing new, you know]. Syferfontein, near Peerboom, was similarly removed without a trace. But no one knew where Peerboom was, with its magnificent stone-walled werf, and so, happily, it has survived. Just as those over-zealous cedarwood thieves could not restore the natural non-human wilderness [did they even try?], they could not totally achieve their ISIS-like aims. Fundamentalist barbarians!

The ruins at Peerboom, and the Great Wall on the right: pics by Dawie Burger

6. ... and last but not least, not a Cederberg koringkriek!

If you thought the koringkriek from Wolfberg was weird, try this:

It’s reckoned to be the first accurate reconstruction of a thing called Hallucigenia, an animal with a body-plan like nothing else on Earth – that went extinct more millions of years ago than we can count.
I reckon we should be pleased about that.

Kaartman, July 2015

Report Back #37

1. Maclear’s Beacon in the Cederberg

2. Annual Cedar tree planting: your invitation 

3. News from Quinton die Tierman

4. Mark Hanley and Hike the Cederberg #2


1. Maclear’s Beacon in the Cederberg

Research by Dawie Burger of Driehoek has revealed the exciting news that the Cederberg has its very own Maclear’s Beacon. It’s situated on the infrequently-climbed Sneeukop, which Dawie visited recently with George van der Watt. His research resulted in the following edited account [modern pics by Dawie Burger]:—

First Sneeukop Summit 1843

Thomas Maclear and William Mann

 Dr Thomas Maclear and his assistant William Mann climbed Sneeukop in 1843 with a group of Khoi servants, reaching the summit on 21 March. Maclear was busy with his famous triangulation survey of the Cape. On the next morning Mann volunteered to hike to a hill or koppie that lay almost due north of Sneeukop. The distant mountain, known as Augustfonteinberg or Kliprug, was some 70 to 8o km away, and with one servant as a guide it took Mann five or six days to reach its summit. 

Kliprug (Augustfonteinberge) where William Mann sent the signal back to Maclear

As soon as he arrived Mann signalled to Maclear by heliograph; on 29th March Maclear signalled back to Mann that he should return to Sneeukop.
[Mann’s journey would have taken him down to Wupperthal, over to Biedouw and over the Biedouw mountain to the Doring River. From there the most direct line to Augustfontein lay up the Botterkloof, where the pass did still not exist, of course. – Ed]

  
They built this sleeping place and fire place near the Sneeukop summit, and also built a wind break at the beacon where Maclear sat during the day while he was waiting for Mann’s signal.

Sneeuwkop Beacon

Some artefacts found in the area where Thomas Maclear and William Mann slept.

Where the Khoi servants slept under an overhang, close to where Maclear slept. They even apparently had a whole sheep leg for supper!

The next summiting of Sneeukop  was in 1896 by Gother Charles Maclear Mann. Gother Mann was the youngest son of William Mann and a keen mountaineer. He was the first MCSA [Mountain Club] member to reach the summit of Tafelberg, accompanied by farmer Viljoen. He decided to climb Sneeukop in August of the same year, where he was joined by G.T. Amphlett and Sr Arthur Stark. Christian Friedrich Leipoldt joined them later that day, at sunset.

 

Gother Charles Maclear Mann and Christian Freidrich Leipoldt

     

Artefacts founded at the sleeping place and beacon.

Thanks for a great account, Dawie – Hike the Cederberg #2 will proudly carry the name ‘Maclear’s Beacon’!

2. You are invited by CapeNature and Bushmans Kloof
To the annual Clanwilliam Cedar Tree Planting Event in the Cederberg on Saturday 15 May 2015

Gather friends and family and venture into the heart of the spectacular Cederberg to join Cape Nature, the Heuningvlei community and local schools for a day of conservation fun to help save the endemic Clanwilliam cedar tree (categorised as endangered on the Red Data List). Starting at 09:00, you will have the opportunity to plant your own cedar tree in the grove and surrounding wilderness area. Complimentary lunch will be provided and entertainment is courtesy of Bushmans Kloof’s young Riel Dance Champions, ending the programme at 15:00. The event is open to the public and entrance is free. Your hosts for the day are Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve & Wellness Retreat and CapeNature, with members of local environmental groups, the Botanical Society, the Wildflower Society and the Cederberg Conservancy participating too. Should you wish to attend the event, kindly contact Jill Wagner or Jeanine de Vos Telephone: 021 481 1863 Email: jill@rchmail.co.za (Guest numbers required for catering purposes) Programme of Events - Saturday, 16 May 09h30 - 10h00 Refreshments on arrival The gate at the top of the Pakhuis Pass will open in the morning at 08:30. Please note that only 4 X 4 vehicles will manage this road as it is not in a good driving state at the moment. All non 4 x 4 vehicles need to access Heuningvlei from the Wupperthal Road. 10h00 - 10h30 Welcome by Patrick Lane, Cape Nature planting of the seeds by the local school children and ceremonial planting of trees in the grove. 10h30 - 13h00 Planting of the trees in the Wilderness Area 13h30 - 15h00 Lunch will be provided by Bushmans Kloof, entertainment courtesy of our Riel Dance Champions! Please remember to bring well marked hand spades for the planting of the small trees.

3. News from Quinton die Tierman

Quinton sent this from California, where the mountain lions are shy, it seems ...

Hi All,
Rodney, Liz, Ayla and I put out 4 camera traps at our house on Sunday a week ago – this was one of the captures we got – our first mountain lion sighting at home.

Shy Californian mountain lion ...

While cleaning up around the house I found 4 scorpions, 1 centipede, 1 giant lizard of sorts and along with Liz’s bobcat sighting and fox sightings – well, suffice it to say that Ayla is getting her fair share of animal life.
Very cool!!
Lots of love
Quin

4. Mark Hanley and Hike the Cederberg #2

Mark Hanley was [too many years ago to recall] an ex-pupil of mine, and later a much-loved and respected teacher at Bishops. At Bishops he created the ‘Epic’, a ten day programme for pre-matric pupils who visit the Cederberg for an active programme of hiking and exploring as well as community programmes with the pupils of Elizabethfontein Primary School. After Mark  died a plaque in his memory was placed at Traveller’s Rest in the Agter-Pakhuis. Fellow staff members remembered, too, that Mark had a favourite place in the Cederberg, an unnamed waterfall in Kruiskloof, near the head of the Beesgat valley. 

Remembering the ancient and time-honoured tradition of cartography, whereby cartographers exercise their right to name the unnamed on their maps [both America and Australia were named this way, by the way!] I have agreed that the falls will appear on edition #2 of ‘Hike the Cederberg’ and on all subsequent editions too, of course.

If you know of any unnamed features and have suggestions for naming them, please step up to the plate. In May we are off to gather more local names, but these generally only involve places near settlements and roads, and not the plethora of features that are out there in our favourite mountains.
And to Mark’s family: I am honoured to be able to remember him this way.

Kaartman, April 2015

Report Back #36

Pic by Molly Smit

1. Hike the Cederberg #2

It’s no longer a rumour: Hike the C #1 is selling out much faster than expected, and by August/September we’ll have to have a second edition on the shelves. I’m hoping to be able to stretch to a heavier weight of Duraflex this time, to give the maps extra strength, but as usual cost will be the issue.
So, if you have any suggestions for additions or deletions or changes etc etc every scrap of info will be gratefully received ... deadline end of May 2015?

Pic by Molly Smit

2. Fire Fire

You could argue that the Cederberg has its own fires to worry about, so why concern us with the Peninsula fire? Fact is, there are lessons to be learned from both.
I think the most important of these is the classic problem: vast numbers of people, including politicians and decision makers of all parties and at all levels, still haven’t got it: that fynbos will burn because fynbos is designed to burn because the only way that fynbos is renewed is by being burnt. 

Pic by Molly Smit

These people collectively still describe fynbos fires as ‘disasters’, ‘tragedies’, ‘devastation’, etc etc.
Yes, if people are hurt or killed and properties are destroyed, that is tragic and devastating – but the fynbos itself will renew, exactly as it has been doing for hundreds of thousands of years before humans even learned how to make their own fires. 

The Peninsula fynbos that has just burned was almost all 15 years old – if anything, overdue for a fire. It was ripe to go and an outstanding feature of this 4800 ha burn is this: with hundreds of firefighters on the ground, fire-engines from every station in the Peninsula, four helicopters and two fixed-wing fire-bombers, there was NOWHERE where the fire was stopped in the fynbos itself. It was only stopped on the urban edge or, where houses were damaged or destroyed, inside the urban edge.

Pic by Molly Smit

Jasper Slingsby has created this little overlay of known fires in the Peninsula since 1964 – the gif goes quite fast and ends rather abruptly, but it’s extremely instructive in terms of the inevitable fact of fynbos fires. If it has already started filling up by the time you read this, give it a chance to start its little animation all over again, from the beginning ...

Animated map by Jasper Slingsby

Finally, if you did not see Simon Pooley’s article in the Cape Times [6th March] try to get hold of one – I have asked Simon if we can summarise it in this blog, see here with some further comments of my own. Amongst all the other good sense he has written, Simon summarises the changes in fire management that have taken place since PW Botha emasculated the old Forestry Department back in the 1980s ... if I sense some old grey heads nodding in approval, know that mine is one of them!

                               Remember me?

Keep cool this long dry summer
– Kaartman, March 2015