Experience an informative guided Table Mountain hiking adventure
Experience an informative guided Table Mountain hiking adventure and be amazed. The Cape Floral Kingdom boasts over 9000 different species of Fynbos flowers, that is flowring seasonally and annually. With the main families being Daisy, Protea, Erica Heathers, Grasses and Geophites which are the bulbs. My favourite family is by far the Orchids. The Race Mosa as featured above is an absolute stunner. Growing up to and sometimes just over a meter high in length, it always gets to be the talk of the day. The reason for this is because many know orchids to be way smaller than a meter in length. The Race Mosa I’ve seen growing in Orange kloof for the first time after 15years of hiking across the Table Mountain chain. Passing through this area plenty times with permit holding guests, I figured it’s due to the lack of movement of people that the Race Mosa is actually thriving in that specific spot. Making Fynbos really special because as soon as you restrict certain areas of hikers, the fynbos starts popping up with some types of flowers not commonly seen in that specific area.
The unique orchids flowering time and area is mind blowing. You can be in the Cape of Good Hope reserve and find coastal Fynbos including Blue Disa’s and plenty of Sytiriums. Hiking Table Mountain you find more inland Fynbos and orchids thriving at higher altitudes. Blue Disa is also quite common on top of Table Mountain and that is really amazing. Finding one type of orchid in two different types of altitude regions yet thriving perfectly well.
My Table Mountain Orchid trails runs from the start of November but one can start seeing Sytiriums appearing as early as September.
during the month of January and February one can see as many as 5 to 7 different types of orchids. The Cluster Disa flowers during the time of the Red DISA and Blue DISA but yellow bonnet Orchids can be seen along the Smuts track if you know where to look. Only the orchid enthusiast’s go absolutely bonkers as soon as we spotted the 1st orchid of the day.
when hiking up Plattekilp Gorge you can very easily see Golden Disa’s at the top but once again you need to know where to look and that is always the case.
The above meter high Sytirium can often be seen along the road side of OuKaap Se WEG (Old Cape Way) and not evens the locals know that it is an orchid, it is also commonly found in the Sylvermine Reserve that is under the management of Table Mountain National Park a devision of SANPARKS.
To find and experience these magnificent and jaw dropping Table Mountain Orchids, please feel free to contact me.
fauna.flora@gmail.com +27657155688 @c.s.hiking