The Wild I See

Every September the West Coast explodes into the most amazing colours. Knowing this, Jem and I decided to take a day trip up to Posberg Flower Reserve (West Coast National Park) to soak it all in. I get the same stoked feeling every time I see the flowers and always end up in such awe that a phenomenon like this isn't staged by some supernatural force. Fields and fields of flowers unfurled to the sun, flaunting their saturated petals at buzzers-by. Monkey beetles, flies, wasps, bees and countless other critters whizzing from inflorescence to inflorescence spreading pollen throughout these floral metropolises. The insects are followed by the birds... and so many of them! This truly is a time for the birds and the bees; pollination at its best.

It's always great to take the time to step back from it all and think about the place you call home. Here's a short film  Lauren de Vos  and I made about the beautiful and diverse place that we call home.

On the 9th of August a German owned vessel, the Kiani Satu , was on its way from Cape Town to Gabon when it ran aground in Goukamma Nature Reserve and Marine Protected Area. The 168 m long vessel was carrying 15 000 tons of rice and 330 tons of fuel oil. Following the event someone remarked: "While there is no current threat to the environment, we hope the ship is towed off soon before this turns into another Seli 1." Since then oil has been leaking out of the vessel which has washed up on beaches and even entered the Goukamma estuary. The damages to local sandy beach and rocky shore ecological systems are likely to be massive, and already there have been incidences of birds completely covered in oil. The oil also threatens our valuable estuaries, which are integral to providing refugia for juvenile fish and are also home to the world's only populations of the Knysna seahorse. Unfortunately, oil has already breached the Goukamma estua...

In a twist of oceanographical fate, a five metre swell with an 18 second period surged over one of the world's most beautiful big wave reefs. Twiggy Baker, John John Florence, Albee Layer, Frank Solomon, Mike Schlebach, Andy Marr, Simon Lowe and others were there to harvest the stoke. Huge thanks to Steve Benjamin from Animal Ocean for taking me out there! Check out the video I filmed and edited  here .

It was Friday the 24th of May and the fog on the Atlantic seaboard was heavy. Steve predicted it would roll into the city and into Camp's Bay, so we headed up the mountain to search for a fresh perspective of our beautiful city. True enough, as the sun set and the land cooled, the fog rolled in boisterously under the full moon and the city disappeared. Cape Town - I love this city from Otto Whitehead on Vimeo .

Once upon a time there was a pair of rock kestrels that bred at Dias Beach in the reserve. That time is now and this season they laid four eggs (Anthony Van Zyl; pers. comm.). Last week I was lucky enough to glimpse one of the youngsters (photo below) all grown up and munching on a black girdled lizard (which are often seen sunbathing on the rocks). Note: adults have grey head feathers whereas this is absent in the juveniles.