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2011 WINTER NEWSLETTER |
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.jpg "2009 hike peter corbett")
Dear Eden to Addo Friends,
Welcome to our newsletter. It is quite long so we have made it such that you can click the “ read more” button should you have an interest in the article. We thought, as it is winter, you may have a little more time to read!
I really suggest you read the piece about alien clearing if you have any alien vegetation on your property. The secret is to leave some dead men standing so as to allow birds to stop off and deposit their seeds! It is war here as the escaped pines are taking over our Tsitsikamma and Outeniqua mountains. The question is “ when is industry going to be made responsible for their polluting ways”. Just as with the acid water leaking from our mines we have the pines advancing onto our mountains. And why are landowners left to pay to clear the escaped aliens?
We have had fantastic rains in the Eden to Addo Corridors. Good news for this years Great Corridor Hikers as the flowers should be magnificent in September. I have highlighted a particular species in this newsletter that we should look out for and photograph on this years hike. We have a prize for the first spotter.There are still two places available if you would like to join.
For the adventurous we have the mountain bike, trail running challenge in October. It will be our first one and from experience the first is always the most memorable. Scroll down to the end of the letter to read more about it.
Warm regards
Joan
CEO - Eden to Addo Corridor Initiative
Section 21 Company Reg No 2005/026045108 Public Benefit Organization Exemption No 930025641
P.O.Box 1 Plettenberg Bay 6600 South Africa landline: +27 (0)44 533 1623
Directors:
Dr. Robbie Robinson -Chairperson
Joan Berning - CEO
Pam Booth -Project Co-ordinator
Galeo Saintz
Find us on our website: www.edentoaddo.co.za
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Rob Markhams Letter from the Langkloof.
I started extension work with the Eden to Addo Corridor Initiative in the Langkloof in January 2011. The Langkloof is a beautiful narrow, very long kloof or valley wedged between the Tsitsikamma Mountains in the south and the Kouga Mountains in the North with the magnificent Kouga River running through it. It is known for its apples. All organic apples supplied to Woolworths come from the Langkloof. Honeybush tea, cyclopia sessiliflora, is gathered from the mountains. The fynbos is spectacular. Helen Pickering identified Disa spathulata subsp tripartita, Oupa met sy pyp, an endangered species on the 2009 Eden to Addo Great Corridor Hike, Many of the farmers have beautiful swathes of fynbos on their land.
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%203.jpg "10 Sept 2009 Anthony Gardy (305) 3") |
To Read Further - http://www.edentoaddo.co.za/langkloof2011.htm
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Dorus Sturm and Mount Nelson
In 2001 Dorus Sturm moved from The Netherlands to South Africa and bought a 200ha property ‘Mount Nelson’ in Fisanthoek/Plettenberg Bay adjoining the Garden of Eden. In the past most of the land had been used for a pine and karri plantation, but since the last harvesting in the 1970’s nothing had been done. There have been fires in two areas of the property in 1990 and 1998. Therefore, with the exception of the northern slope on which there is indigenous forest, most of Mount Nelson was a jungle of pine, black wattle, blackwood, rooikrans and hakea when he bought it. He has had incredible results from his method of clearing the aliens from his property. This is his alien clearing story.
To Read Click the Link - www.edentoaddo.co.za/mountnelson.htm
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SITE SPECIFIC AND THE EDEN TO ADDO LANDART ROUTE:
The launch of the first art piece on the 28th of May for the Eden to Addo Land Art Route on the Robberg Corridor, Kranshoek was an occasion of note. The art piece is monumental, visitors streamed in, and from areas of Plettenberg Bay that had not been to Kranshoek before. They were in awe of the beauty of the coastline and the fynbos. The mission to use art as a medium for communicating Eden to Addo’s conservation and community objectives was achieved.
The land art, sculptured by Simon Max Bannister, is titled: “Aartmoeders” - Afrikaans for matriarchs. It consists of three alignments of large stones, representing elephants by the placement of boulders found within a 10m radius of the site.. The elephants appear to be emerging from the land and are facing East as they ‘walk’ in a line. The boulders of the art piece are placed in such a way as to form sitting areas for visitors from where they can take in the spectacular coastal views.
An event was organised for the schoolchildren on the day before the opening. Fifty children and their teachers were given a small lunch whilst listening to the meaning behind conservation corridors. They helped to make the pebble pathways that form walkways through the fynbos to the “Aartmoeders”. Ten milkwood trees were donated by Drew Scott for planting near the picnic spot .
Phillip Damonds, a Kranshoek entrepreneur, organised the Saturday opening event with a brass band, speeches, a choir, craft and food stalls, and more. Many visitors attended and braved the storm that suddenly came in from the West. Visitors and organisers found refuge from the storm at the local tavern afterwards for glass of Old Brown Sherry!
The Site Specific team, who organised the entire International Landart event in Plett that we were a part of, ensured that Eden to Addo’s launch was well covered by the media. An article appeared in Die Burger and we were interviewed by the Financial Times ( please let me know if you see the article – it will still be some time before it is published.) There should also be an article in the business day.
Edento Addo has captured the imagination of the visitors and the media. SABC covered the launch on May 29th. The producer, an outdoorsy elder statesman at SABC, was intrigued by the possibility of hiking the Eden to Addo Great Corridor Hike in his retirement.
Another meeting is planned with the Kranshoek organiser, Phillip Damonds to brainstorm how the people from Kranshoek can further benefit from the ” Aartmoeders”.
An invitation has gone out to local and international land artists to create the next artpiece to highlight the Keurbooms Corridor.
Special thanks to Chris Von Christierson for donating funds towards the art piece. And to Site Specific for choosing Plettenberg Bay to have their event |
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Mimetes splendidus
The Mimetes genera was made famous by T.P Stokoe, 1868 to 1959, a grand old man of botany. He had as many as 30 plants as well as a beetle named after him. He was still climbing dangerous mountain sections at the age of 85 searching for elusive species. When told by a mountaineering salesman that he ought to have his mind read to climb at that age he replied ” age was not ones number of years but a state of mind” and that “ it shows how folk are handicapped by conventional ideas”. His most famous discovery was the Golden Protea, Mimetes stokoei. He came across a single plant in the Kogelberg in 1922. In all his subsequent searches he came across just ten plants in flower in two small populations. In 1959 it was listed as extinct. But in 2001 thirteen months after the 1999 devastatingly hot January fire in the Kogelberg, Mark Johns found twenty four plants. An extraordinary discovery that led to a change in management plans of fynbos. The seed had survived a few fires and remained viable in the soil for approximately 50 years! <
Pictured here is the Mimetes splendidus, Splendid Pagoda or Pragstompie which is our “species of the month”. It is also very rare and something to look out for on our Eden to Addo Great Corridor hike. An interesting story relating to this species is that Peter Slingsby and party were hiking in the Tsitsikamma’s when they came across a cut splenidus on the footpath. Not expecting to find it there they searched around and found a small stand of plants. A little later they visited the forester and there in the office to their horror was a vase filled with the rare splendidus. When confronted on picking the rare plant the forester replied that Tienie and John Voster were visiting later that day!
Habit: An erect shrub to 2.5m tall
Fire survival: Killed, only seeds survive
Sexual system: Both sexes in each flower
Flowers: May - September, peaking in May - July
Pollinator: Bird
Fruit: Released 2-6 months after flowering
Seed dispersal: Ants
Seed storage: Underground in ants nests
Rarity status: Rare
Habitat: Moist south slopes on peaty soils, 600-1200m
Distribution: Western Langeberg, Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma Mountains
Confusing Species: Occasionally misidentified by atlassers (and herbarium curators) as M. fimbriifolius.
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Look out for Eden to Addo’s fyngoed endorsement / partnership sticker on Independent Milk on sale at Pick n Pay and Spar in the Southern Cape. Dairy farmer, Andrew West, of Cairn Brogie has commited a portion of his conservation worthy land to the Robberg Corrider and entered into a protected Environment Agreement with his neighbours.
The Robberg Corridor links the formally protected areas of Harkerville Forest and Robberg Nature reserve. The movement of species over his land is clearly evident from the skat. Our motion cameras are being set up there to monitor the movement. Besides his contribution to conserving biodiversity he is also using a UV system to pasteurize his milk saving an enormous amount of energy and therefore green house gasses (not to mention the economic benefit in the cost of electricity).
The sticker is not only available for farm products but also to landowners within the Eden to Addo corridors who have business related products such as tourism outlets. The possibilities are boundless.
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 EDEN TO ADDO GREAT CORRIDOR CHALLENGE
2011 heralds the first Eden to Addo Great Corridor CHALLENGE – a fund raising event that caters for the couragous. Funds raised from the event add to the arsenal of Eden to Addo in support of our conservation work.
It is an expedition for adventure minded participants. The journey will start from the home of the last remaining secretive wild elephant(s) in the Knysna Forest, traveling on mountain bike and on foot, traversing old elephant migration routes on the way through the whole length of the Eden to Addo Corridor and ending 11 days later in Addo. A total of 550km, 7 mountain ridges and 5 biomes. The Adventure consists of 8 days of mountain biking, 2 days of hiking and 1 day of hiking and mountain biking.
There is an option to do the first or second half of the event. The first half - Eden to Kouga - starts on the 7th of October and finishes at Baviaans Lodge on the 12th of October. The secnd half - Kouga to Addo starts on the 12th of October and finishes in Addo on the 18th of October.
The event has been published in the June/July Edition of the Do It Now Magazine!
For an excellent read on the recce of this amazing event CLICK HERE
For booking information: http://www.edentoaddo.co.za/cycle-the-e2a-corridor |
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The Eden to Addo Great Corridor Hike will be running for the 5thtime in 2011. This year the fund raising event is scheduled to start on the 2ndof September and end in Addo on the 21stof September.
We are almost fully subscribed for 2011.
The hike is set to be featured in the August edition of the Getaway magazine.
Our team is in place and we look forward to another pilgrimage for bio-diversity over the mountains and across the wide open spaces.
Eden to Addo Corridor Initiative thanks all landowners, park rangers, SANParks and ECParks officials for their continued support and enthusiasm for this annual fundraising event. Without their support and encouragement the 400km trek would not be possible.
All money raised from the hike helps Eden to Addo to continue its conservation work in the landscape.
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Bookings:
www.edentoaddo.co.za/hike-the-e2a-corridor
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DATES TO DIARISE
Look out for an article on the Eden to Addo Great Corridor Hike in the August edition of The Getaway Magazine. Initially we gave word for the May edition - this has changed to the August edition.
Eden to Addo Great Corridor Hike - 2 September to 21 September
Eden to Addo Challenge - 7 October to 18 October
Contact us to donate towards our Landtrust and Conservation Funds * Approved in terms of Section 18a(1)(a) of the Income Tax Act - admin@edentoaddo.co.ca
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.JPG "2010 Ant Gardy (21)")
.jpg "2010 E2A Joan Berning (51)")
