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Kogelberg
The Kogelberg is a range of mountains along the False Bay coast in the Western Cape of South Africa. They form part of the Cape Fold Belt, starting south of the Elgin valley and forming a steep coastal range as far as Kleinmond. The Kogelberg area has the steepest and highest drop directly into the ocean of any southern African coastal stretch. Ecology {{main, Kogelberg Nature Reserve The mountains are made predominantly of Table Mountain Sandstone and form some very rugged terrain, which is extremely rich in fynbos, the native Cape flora. The Elgin Valley's surrounding mountain ranges are considered the hub of the Cape floral kingdom. They contain more plant species than anywhere else in the floral region, and a large section of the mountain range is now protected in the massive Kogelberg Nature Reserve. The unique local vegetation type is classified as Kogelberg Sandstone Fynbos. The climate is Mediterranean, however much milder than average, due to constant maritime winds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kogelberg Nature Reserve
Kogelberg Nature Reserve is a nature reserve of comprising the Kogelberg Mountain Range, to the east of Cape Town, South Africa. With about 1600 plant species, it contains a floral diversity per unit area that is greater than anywhere else in the world. Ecology Located in the Kogelberg Mountains, along the mountainous coast on the eastern edge of Cape Town, this nature reserve protects a significant portion of Kogelberg Sandstone Fynbos. Among the enormous range of plants in this local vegetation type are hundreds of species of Erica, a wide range of Protea species and a great many plant families which are endemic. The Kogelberg mountains are known as the heart of the Fynbos, and have a floral diversity per unit area that is greater than anywhere else in the world. In addition to its unique mountain fynbos, other ecosystems include wetlands, as well as the riparian vegetation of the Palmiet River, which is the most untouched in the south western Cape and are home to fore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kogelberg Sandstone Fynbos
Kogelberg Sandstone Fynbos is a critically endangered vegetation type occurring in the far south of the Western Cape, South Africa. This type of mountain fynbos contains an extremely high number of threatened species and a great number of the plants that occur here can be found nowhere else on earth. It naturally occurs from the eastern outskirts of Cape Town, eastwards through the Kogelberg and Hottentots-Holland mountains, as far as Kleinmond, and it is conserved within the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve. This particular vegetation grows on rough, mountainous, sandstone terrain. It was extensively planted with commercial timber plantations of invasive pine trees. These trees pose a major threat to the unique and endangered biodiversity and have yet to be completely removed. See also * Biodiversity of Cape Town * Cape Floristic Region * Kogelberg Mountains * Kogelberg Nature Reserve * Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos is a unique and endangered vegetatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rooi Els, Western Cape
Rooiels (Afrikaans equivalent of red alder) is a settlement in Overberg District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The name is often written as Rooi-Els, but the name of the township was registered as Rooiels (one word). It was declared a township in June 1948, and is situated 5 km north of Pringle Bay, on the eastern shore of False Bay. It was named after the farm and river by this name. It is situated beside the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve and is itself a registered conservancy. The town roads are narrow, un-tarred and without street lights. Klein-Hangklip mountain dominates the village, and is home to a pair of Verreaux's eagles. Other animals that may be noted are chacma baboons, rock hyrax, small antelope, African clawless otters and occasionally caracal and leopard. Hangklip.jpg, Klein-Hangklip on the eastern edge of False Bay as seen from Rooi-Els Whirlpool gap in a strong surge DSC03464.jpg, A whirlpool between the large rocks characteristic for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betty's Bay
Betty's Bay is a small holiday town situated on the Overberg coast of South Africa's Western Cape province. It is located 100 km from Cape Town beneath the Kogelberg Mountains on the scenic R44 ocean drive between Pringle Bay and Kleinmond. This village stretches over 13 km along the coast. Tourism plays a large role in the town's economy due to its popularity with holiday makers from across the Western Cape and Cape Town in particular. During colonial times Betty's Bay was allegedly a favourite place for runaway slaves, and in 1912 Betty's Bay became a formal whaling station running up until the 1930s. Remains of the whaling station can still be seen at Stony Point. Bettys Bay is named after Betty Youlden, daughter of the first developer of the area Arthur Youlden. Betty's Bay contains the Harold Porter National Botanical Garden as well as an African penguin colony in the Betty's Bay Marine Protected Area, which is one of the two Penguin colonies in the area of the Western Cape ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
False Bay
False Bay (Afrikaans ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarcated by Cape Point to the west and Cape Hangklip to the east. The north side of the bay is the low-lying Cape Flats, and the east side is the foot of the Hottentots Holland Mountains to Cape Hangklip which is at nearly the same latitude as Cape Point. In plan the bay is approximately square, being roughly the same extent from north to south as east to west, with the southern side open to the ocean. The seabed slopes gradually down from north to south, and is mostly fairly flat unconsolidated sediments. Much of the bay is off the coast of the City of Cape Town, and it includes part of the Table Mountain National Park Marine Protected Area and the whole of the Helderberg Marine Protected Area. The name "False Bay" was applied at least three hu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fynbos
Fynbos (; meaning fine plants) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate and rainy winters. The fynbos ecoregion is within the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. In fields related to biogeography, fynbos is known for its exceptional degree of biodiversity and endemism, consisting of about 80% (8,500 fynbos) species of the Cape floral kingdom, where nearly 6,000 of them are endemic. This land continues to face severe human-caused threats, but due to the many economic uses of the fynbos, conservation efforts are being made to help restore it. Overview and history The word fynbos is often confusingly said to mean "fine bush" in Afrikaans, as "bos" means "bush". Typical fynbos foliage is ericoid rather than fine. The term, in its pre-Afrikaans, Dutch form, ''fynbosch'', was recorded by Nob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pringle Bay
Pringle Bay ( af, Pringlebaai) is a small, affluent coastal village in the Overberg region of the Western Cape, in South Africa. It is situated at the foot of Hangklip, on the opposite side of False Bay from Cape Point. The town and surrounds are part of the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO Heritage Site. The bay is named after Rear-Admiral Thomas Pringle, of the Royal Navy, who commanded the naval station at the Cape in the late 1790s. Situated between Betty's Bay and Gordon's Bay Gordon's Bay ( af, Gordonsbaai) is a harbour town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is included in the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality as a suburb of the Helderberg region (formerly called Hottentots Holland). It is ..., many of the houses in the small community are only used as holiday houses by their owners. It is accessed by the R44, which connects it to the N2. Pringle Bay is well known for the Hangklip (hanging rock) that leans out to sea and marks the easter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grabouw
Grabouw is a town located in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Grabouw is located some 65 km south-east of Cape Town, over Sir Lowry's Pass from Somerset West, along the N2 highway.The town is the commercial centre for the vast Elgin Valley, the largest single export fruit-producing area in Southern Africa, which extends between the Hottentots-Holland, Kogelberg, Groenland, and Houwhoek Mountains. The town's population has grown rapidly, with 44 593 people in 2019 from 21 593 as listed by the 2001 census. History Pre-colonial history The original inhabitants of the area were the Khoikhoi pastoralists and the San hunter gatherers. The indigenous people of the region, the Chainouqua Khoi, inhabited a large area on both sides of the Hottentots Holland Mountains. They traded with early European settlers, but were later dispossessed from their lands by the Dutch colonists, who began to move into the area in the late 1600s and took the Chainouqua land for farming. Fort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kleinmond
Kleinmond is a small coastal town in the Overberg region of the Western Cape province, South Africa. It is situated inside a UNESCO-declared biosphere about 90 km east of Cape Town between Betty's Bay and Hermanus. The town's name, meaning "small mouth" in Afrikaans, refers to its location at the mouth of the Bot River lagoon. Stone ax heads found in the area indicate that people already lived in the vicinity of nearby Hangklip 20,000 years ago. Information about the area has existed in writing since the seventeenth century. Tourism Tourism plays a large role in the town's economy due to its popularity with holiday makers from across the Western Cape and Cape Town in particular. Environment From June to November, southern right whales can be seen from the coastline, where they come to mate and calf. A herd of wild horses is known to roam free in the marshlands at the Bot River lagoon area, next to Rooisands Nature Reserve. They are believed to be South Africa's only her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Fold Belt
The Cape Fold Belt is a fold and thrust belt of late Paleozoic age, which affected the sequence of sedimentary rock layers of the Cape Supergroup in the southwestern corner of South Africa. It was originally continuous with the Ventana Mountains near Bahía Blanca in Argentina, the Pensacola Mountains (East Antarctica), the Ellsworth Mountains (West Antarctica) and the Hunter-Bowen orogeny in eastern Australia. The rocks involved are generally sandstones and shales, with the shales (Bokkeveld Group) persisting in the valley floors while the erosion resistant sandstones (belonging to the Peninsula Formation) form the parallel ranges, the Cape Fold Mountains, which reach a maximum height of 2325 m at Seweweekspoortpiek ('Seven Weeks Defile Peak' in Afrikaans). The Cape Fold Mountains form a series of parallel ranges that run along the south-western and southern coastlines of South Africa for 850 km from the Cederberg 200 km to the north of the Cape Peninsula, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elgin, Western Cape
Elgin is a large, lush area of land, circled by mountains, in the Overberg region of South Africa. This broad upland valley lies about 70 km southeast of Cape Town, just beyond the Hottentots Holland Mountains. The Elgin region is centered on the town of Grabouw. The Elgin Valley is one of the more intensively farmed districts of South Africa and produces 60% of the national apple crop. Consequently it is now internationally known as the place in South Africa “where the apples come from”. However a recent shift in economic focus has led to Elgin also becoming one of South Africa's most notable and successful wine regions, with the coolest climate of any region in the country. Elgin wines and tourism have consequently become significant parts of the valley's economy. Deciduous fruit, Flowers and Wine Today the Elgin valley is renowned for its apple and pear orchards, its greenhouse cut flowers, its rose growing, and, increasingly, for the production of high quality, co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020. About two-thirds of these inhabitants live in the metropolitan area of Cape Town, which is also the provincial capital. The Western Cape was created in 1994 from part of the former Cape Province. The two largest cities are Cape Town and George. Geography The Western Cape Province is roughly L-shaped, extending north and east from the Cape of Good Hope, in the southwestern corner of South Africa. It stretches about northwards along the Atlantic coast and about eastwards along the South African south coast (Southern Indian Ocean). It is bordered on the north by the Northern Cape and on the east by the Eastern Cape. The total land area of the province is , about 10.6% of the country's total. It is roughly the size of England or the S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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