A wonderful lunchtime hike from Constantia Nek to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

“How ’bout we meet at Constantia Nek on the weekend and walk to Kirstenbosch Gardens for lunch?” asked our friend L, one fine week in June. “We did that hike last weekend, and it was quite wonderful.” “An excellent idea. See you there!” When Sunday came around, we duly met V and L at the…

A challenging hike from Newlands Forest to Kirstenbosch Gardens

The Volunteer Wildfire Service at Newlands Forest was training its recruits this morning. Amidst much yelling of orders and running hither and thither, the brightly clad volunteers practised spraying water on non-existing flames, immersed some sort of water pump to the flowing Newlands stream, and unrolled metres of firehose. A few minutes earlier, we had…