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Winterhoek
The Groot Winterhoek mountains are located in the Western Cape province of South Africa and are part of the Cape Fold Belt comprising a watershed area of 552,606 hectares. They rise to a maximum height of 2077 m just north of the town of Tulbagh as Groot Winterhoek peak. The mountains are predominantly made up of Table Mountain sandstone. Up to 83% of the range is still classified as being in a natural state and up to 72% of the range is protected. The towns of Saron and Porterville are located at the foot the mountain range's western side. A plateau in the northern half of the mountains is accessible via the Dasklip Pass. Mammals found in the range include klipspringer, grey rhebok, grysbok, Cape mountain leopard (''Felis leopardus'' var. ''melanotica'' ), caracal, African wild cat, mongoose, and genets. A wide range of indigenous plant species, such as Agathosma, Aspalathus linearis and various proteas (all of which are harvested commercially), naturally grow in the ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tulbagh
Tulbagh, named after Dutch Cape Colony Governor Ryk Tulbagh, is a town located in the "Land van Waveren" mountain basin (also known as the Tulbagh basin), in the Winelands of the Western Cape, South Africa. The basin is fringed on three sides by mountains, and is drained by the Klein Berg River and its tributaries. The nearest towns are Ons Rust and Gouda beyond the Nuwekloof Pass, Wolseley some to the south inside the basin, and Ceres and Prince Alfred Hamlet beyond Michell's Pass in the Warm Bokkeveld. History The basin has been inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous Bushmen and Khoi-San peoples. It was about 300 years ago when, after a land grant by the Dutch Colonial Government to a more or less equal number of Dutch and Huguenot settlers to settle the area, that the town of Tulbagh was founded. The region was named "Land van Waveren" in 1699 by Willem Adriaan van der Stel in honour of the Oetgens van Waveren family, from which his mother was descended. Before ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dasklip Pass
Dasklip Pass is situated in the Western Cape province of South Africa on an off-road near Porterville along the R365 highway. The road provides access to the plateau in the Groot Winterhoek mountains and the Groot Winterhoek Wilderness Area; summiting at a height of 700 metres above sea level. It was privately built by farmers located on the plateau. The road was upgraded to an asphalt road in the early 2000s. The road is noted for both its views of the Swartland The Swartland is a region of Western Cape Province that begins some north of Cape Town and consists of the area between the towns of Malmesbury in the south, Darling in the west, Piketberg in the north, Moorreesburg in the middle and the Riebee ... plains below and as a popular launch site for hang gliders. During the 2015 Western Cape fire season a fire fighter died when his vehicle veered off the pass. Gallery File:Dasklip Pass.jpg, Road sign on the R365 turnoff to the pass File:Dasklip Pass01.jpg, Part of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porterville, Western Cape
Porterville is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The town is located at the foot of the Olifants River Mountains, 27 km south-east of Piketberg and 155 km north-east of Cape Town. It is situated 140 km north of Cape Town on R44 road at the base of the Olifants River mountains. The Dasklip Pass to the surrounding Groot Winterhoek mountains is located 14 km outside of the town. The Soom Shale, a notable deposit of Late Ordovician era fossils, is located near the town. Agriculture in the area is dominated by wheat production. The closest towns are Piketberg to the west, Saron to the south, and Eendekuil and Citrusdal to the north. History Prior to European settlement the area was inhabited by Khoekhoen nomadic pastoralists. The town was laid out in 1863 on Pomona's farm, previously owned by Willems Vallei. The town was established in 1863 and named after William Porter, who served as Attorney General of the Cape Colony from 1839 to 1866, and bec ... [...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] |
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] |
Agathosma
''Agathosma'' is a genus of about 140 species of flowering plants in the family Rutaceae, native to the southern part of Africa. Common names include Buchu, Boegoe, Bucco, Bookoo and Diosma. '' Buchu'' formally denotes two herbal species, prized for their fragrance and medicinal use despite their toxicity. In colloquial use however, the term (see Boegoe) is applied to a wider set of fragrant shrubs or substitutes. They are small shrubs and subshrubs, mostly with erect woody stems reaching 30–100 cm tall, but low-growing and prostrate in some species. The leaves are usually opposite, ericoid, often crowded, simple, entire, from 0.5-3.5 cm long. The flowers are produced in terminal clusters, 0.7–2 cm diameter, with five white, pink, red or purple, petals. Many of the species are highly aromatic, and the genus name means "good fragrance". Some species of the genus are used as herbal remedies. Uses Two species of ''Agathosma'' endemic to the Western Cape m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CapeNature
CapeNature (officially the Western Cape Nature Conservation Board) is a governmental organisation responsible for maintaining wilderness areas and public nature reserves in Western Cape Province, South Africa. Parks managed by CapeNature West Coast *Cederberg Wilderness Area *Bird Island Nature Reserve * Rocherpan Nature Reserve * Groot Winterhoek Wilderness Area *Knersvlakte Nature Reserve * Riverlands Nature Reserve Winelands * Limietberg Nature Reserve *Jonkershoek Nature Reserve *Assegaaibosch Nature Reserve *Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve * Vrolijkheid Nature Reserve Overberg * Marloth Nature Reserve *Kogelberg Nature Reserve *Walker Bay Nature Reserve *Salmonsdam Nature Reserve * De Mond Nature Reserve *De Hoop Nature Reserve * Grootvadersbosch Nature Reserve * Boosmansbos Wilderness Area Cape Karoo *Anysberg Nature Reserve *Swartberg Nature Reserve *Gamkaberg Nature Reserve * Kamanassie Nature Reserve Garden Route and Little Karoo * Outeniqua Nature Reserve * Gouka ... [...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] |
Saron, Western Cape
Saron is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. A Mission Station can be found at the foot of the Saronsberg in the Tulbagh district, about 20 km south of Porterville. The Mission Station was established by the Rhenish Missionary Society in 1848 by Johannes Heinrich Kulpmann, for Mission Station Purposes only, it was later taken over by the Dutch Reformed Church in 1945. The name, Afrikaans for Sharon, is of biblical origin (, ), meaning 'flats' or ‘plain’. On 30 November 2013, Heritage Western Cape Heritage Western Cape (HWC) is a provincial heritage resources authority established by the Minister of Cultural Affairs and Sport of the government of the Western Cape province in South Africa. It is a public entity set up under the terms of ... declared the historic core of the Saron Mission Station as a provincial heritage site. Saron has its name written on the side of the Saronsberg which can be seen from an aerial view. References External links 5 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paleozoic
The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ''zōḗ'' (), "life", meaning "ancient life" ). It is the longest of the Phanerozoic eras, lasting from , and is subdivided into six geologic periods (from oldest to youngest): # Cambrian # Ordovician # Silurian # Devonian # Carboniferous # Permian The Paleozoic comes after the Neoproterozoic Era of the Proterozoic Eon and is followed by the Mesozoic Era. The Paleozoic was a time of dramatic geological, climatic, and evolutionary change. The Cambrian witnessed the most rapid and widespread diversification of life in Earth's history, known as the Cambrian explosion, in which most modern phyla first appeared. Arthropods, molluscs, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and synapsids all evolved during the Paleozoic. Life began in the ocean ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plateau
In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides have deep hills or escarpments. Plateaus can be formed by a number of processes, including upwelling of volcanic magma, extrusion of lava, and erosion by water and glaciers. Plateaus are classified according to their surrounding environment as intermontane, piedmont, or continental. A few plateaus may have a small flat top while others have wide ones. Formation Plateaus can be formed by a number of processes, including upwelling of volcanic magma, extrusion of lava, Plate tectonics movements and erosion by water and glaciers. Volcanic Volcanic plateaus are produced by volcanic activity. The Columbia Plateau in the north-western United States is an example. They may be formed by upwelling of volcanic magma or extrusion of lava. The un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Table Mountain Sandstone
The Table Mountain Sandstone (TMS) is a group of rock formations within the Cape Supergroup sequence of rocks. Although the term "Table Mountain Sandstone" is still widely used in common parlance, the term TMS is no longer formally recognized; the correct name is the " Peninsula Formation Sandstone", which is part of the Table Mountain Group. The designation "Table Mountain Sandstone" will, however, in deference to the title, continue to be used in the rest of this article. The name is derived from the famous landmark in Cape Town, Table Mountain. Table Mountain Sandstone is made up predominantly of quartzitic sandstone laid down between 510 (Cambrian Period) and 400 (Silurian Period) million years ago. It is the hardest, and most erosion resistant layer of the Cape Supergroup. It therefore forms most of the highest and most conspicuous peaks in the Western Cape, as well as the steepest cliffs of the Cape Fold Mountains, despite being the oldest, and, therefore, low ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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