Exploring Fynbos – Plants, Animals, Interactions by Margo Branch (published by Struik Nature) seems to be aimed at slightly older children (tweens, perhaps, or young teenagers), and it’s a fine introduction to the amazing lives that live themselves out in the unique and fascinating Cape Floral Kingdom.

After an introduction to the fynbos (which covers 80% of the region), the renosterveld, the strandveld, the succulent Karoo, the subtropical thickets and the Afromontane forests that make up the biome, Ms. Branch explores every – um – branch of the amazing biodiversity of the tiny coastal region that stretches along the Southern Tip from Niewoudtville in the west to  Port Elizabeth in the east.

“Nowhere else in the world are so many species of plants [found] in such a small area,” she writes in her introduction – but did you know that the fynbos also supports all kinds of birds, animals, and creepy-crawlies?

Naturally you did – but here’s a guide to exploring them, and one that includes practical tips on things like looking out for “the yellow orb-web spider and the grey bark spider that weave their beautiful webs between the restios. Have they caught anything in their webs?”

This is a very visual book, with bright, clear illustrations that I found instantly appealing – especially since they don’t have that depressing, washed-out feeling that so many watercolourists seem to prefer.

The text is short and to the point, and should provide just enough information to keep those constantly moving young minds from getting bored.

Matterafact it’s the kind of information that harried adults who’re interested – but don’t have the time to read – could enjoy, too.

I can imagine dipping into it by the fire on a drippy winter’s day in a guest house somewhere in the Cedarberg, say, or in Struisbaai or Agulhas.

Buy it here.

My first book of Southern African Ocean Life (by Roberta Griffiths with illustrations by Judy Maré, published by Struik Nature) is another in a series of wonderful soft covers (I reviewed ‘My First Book of Southern African Mammals’ here) which are printed simultaneously in English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, and Zulu.

Simple introductions to the ocean’s food chain and how to use the book are followed by fifty eight pages of information on everything from the tiny zooplankton to the enormous blue whale – with one group or species featured per page.

The illustrations are bold and clear, and each page includes information on where the animals live, what they eat, and how they compare in size to an average person.

I can imagine I’m going to have many hours of with this one and my ocean-mad, five-year-old grandson. And it’s the kind of book that you’ll want in your sea-side guest house’s library, too – because big kids (say, of my age) will enjoy it since it’s  so easy to use (and the writing’s nice and big).

Buy it here.

Must-have new book!

Here’s a mistake you shouldn’t make: thinking that succulents (beautifully known in Afrikaans as ‘vetplante’ – fat plants) grow only in the dry desert areas of our diverse and bewildering sub-continent.

They grow every where. I see them when I’m walking along the Lagoon here in Knysna, when I’m driving in the Klein Karoo, in Durbs when I go to the Indaba, and… although I studied horticulture, I was still struggling to identify them easily – up until I found a new book by Gideon F. Smith and Neil R. Crouch.

But the “Guide to Succulents of Southern Africa” gave me something else, too: another reason to love living here. “An amazing 47% of the world’s known succulents” occur in this region.

If you’ve travelled a little, you’ll know at least some of them: the aloes, the nabooms (Euphorbias), and the ice plants (Delosperma, Aptenia, and Carpobrotus – the sour fig). But they’re just a few of the “240 of the region’s most interesting and commonly encountered succulents” described here.

Although the descriptions are a little technical (I’d say you’d need a bit of post-matric botany to understand them properly), the photos are particularly well made, and make for easy identification. And the fact that it’s a small (210 x 145 mm) soft cover book will make it easy to stash in your book bag next time you’re heading out on safari.

It’s published by Struik Nature, and it belongs in every collection of standard ID guides to the animals and plants of Southern Africa.

Buy it here.

Chris and Mathilde Stuart, published by Struik Travel & Heritage
Soft cover, 320 pages

This is a book to make you dream and drool. It describes 43 parks and conservation areas, and makes each one seem more inviting than the last.

Naturally, being a Knysnarian, I turned straight to the Garden Route National Park.

It’s amazing that even locals don’t know about this fantastic, massive new conservation area: many of them still talk about the old Wilderness the Tsitsikamma Parks as if they were still two separate things. But in fact they were incorporated (some years ago) into a much larger area – 157,000 hectares – that also includes the “Knysna National Lake Area and most indigenous forests and mountain water catchment areas between Wilderness in the West and the N2/R62 road junction in the east, and the area south of the N9 and R62 to the north.”

Here I found entries about the physical position, history, geology, vegetation, and wildlife of the Park – but no checklists of birds, mammals, or plants. For them, the book told me to go to www.parksandreserves.co.za – where I was promised “195 free species checklists covering mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish encountered in each location” (with last month – March 2012 – being the projected publication date. But when I tried it, the link didn’t work: I got a “This will soon be the home of…” message. Oh well – we all know what web masters are like.)

Still, with all the information that it DOES provide, and with 139 maps and more than 900 photographs – including a 31-page gallery of 323 mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, trees and flowers – I expect that ‘National Parks and Nature Reserves’ will be a well-mannered companion next time I’m planning a road trip anywhere in the country.

Which is why I think this is a book you’ll definitely want to lend to your guests: if they’re South Africans, it’ll reignite their curiosity about our National Parks. And if they’re foreigners, it’ll definitely make them want to come back for more.

Buy it here.

THIS is how a book should look

I love books, and particularly books about African wildlife – so I’ve got quite a collection. I think I know wildlife books. But every now and then one comes along that stands out and really gets me excited.

And few have excited for a while as much as Gamebirds of Southern Africa by Rob Little and Tim Crowe, with illustration by Simon Barlow (second edition, published by Struik Nature).

Fist of all, it looks like a nature book should look, with a rich tan spine and hard covers in deep grass green, and with real eye candy of an inset on the front (actually, it’s a copy of one of the paintings from inside the book). And then when you open it, you can’t help just falling in love with Mr. Barlow’s illustrations (there’s an interesting and technical introduction to the artworks, in which you’ll learn that the project was three years in the making).

Secondly, it covers a limited selection of birds – the francolins, the spurfowl, the quails, the guineafowl, and the sandgrouses – so there’s enough space to provide detailed descriptions of the 22 featured species, with extensive notes on things like habits, habitat, and conservation status.

And the paintings and drawings – oh man! The paintings and drawings…

This is a book I’m going to read from cover to cover more than once, and which I know I’ll treasure for a long, long time. It really needs to be in your guest library, and you’ll probably want another copy for your coffee table at home. And another one for your favourite uncle at Christmas.

Buy it here.

They say that Phantom Pass, which runs from the Knysna River over to Rheenendal, is named not for a phantom, but for a moth: the phantom moth, or. as it’s most beautifully known to science, Letho venus.

But the French explorer and naturalist, Francois le Vaillant, spent six months in the Knysna district in 1782, recording all its most important natural phenomena – and if the phantom moth is so well known, why did he never describe it?

And why doesn’t it appear in other texts from the early nineteenth century?

Could it be because the phantom moth didn’t exist before 1881?

Victoria Esposito was said to have been the most beautiful of the silk spinners at Gouna. And the silk spinners at Gouna were a group of about forty Italian silk farmers who were brought to this country in 1881 by the British Government in the hope that they would create a silk industry from the wild mulberries which, according to the Honourable Henry Frederick Francis Adair Barrington – a wealthy farmer in the Knysna District – grew aplenty in the Knysna Forests. But Barrington’s research had been (to be polite) scant, and, of course, South Africa’s wild mulberry – Trimeria grandiflora – bears no resemblance at all to the real mulberry – Morus alba – upon which the silkworm prefers to feed.

And because of this fussiness on the part of one tiny worm, the silk spinners were stranded without work or means of working. And, with the government embarrassed by their presence and Barrington disinterested in their plight, they found themselves left to rot in their clearing in the Knysna forest.

Incensed by official inaction, the proud and beautiful Victoria appears to have borrowed one of Barrington’s horses (without asking for it, of course), planning to ride to Knysna, where she’d find a ship that would take everyone home.

Victoria rode out on a stormy night in September (a month not normally associated with bad weather), her path lit only by the lightning which tore at the sky.

As terrified as its rider, the horse bolted and Victoria was unable to do anything more than cling to its neck and hope.

But lightning struck just as the pair came up onto the high ground at the edge of the forest at the very top of the Pass.

It was a direct hit and the girl and the horse were killed instantly – but the power of the girl’s beauty was so great that, instead of transforming to ash, their bodies were transformed into moths.

Exquisite brown and grey moths which appear again and again each year in spring; each one of them with Victoria’s soulful, baleful eyes etched forever on its wings.

_______________________________________________________________

NOTES: THE SILK SPINNERS OF GOUNA

In May 1881 a group of Italian silk spinners disembarked at Knysna’s Town Jetty. They had with them an Englishman, William Christie, who acted as their interpreter.

The Hon. Henry Francis Adair Barrington, of Portland, about 10 km outside Knysna on the Garden Route Coast, had persuaded the Colonial Government to arrange for them to be recruited, and the Government had paid for them to emigrate to the Cape Colony.

Barrington had done this because he thought he could start a silk industry in the area. Apparently he based his proposal to the Government on received information that Knysna Forest (which is still the largest stand of Afro-montane forest in South Africa) contained large numbers of mulberries trees. In truth, these ‘mulberries’ (Trimeria grandiflora, in Afrikaans wildemoerbei, and in Xhosa umNqabane) aren’t even remotely related to the white (or edible) mulberry – Morus alba – whose leaves are the only things on which silkworms feed. While the leaf of the wild mulberry looks a little like that of the edible mulberry, the fruit (which is borne only female plants) is a small, brown, dry capsule – and not a berry at all. (In the early days of the Cape Colony, the wood was used in wagon-building, but it’s very rarely available today.)

The Italians came to the Cape – and Knysna – believing that they were going to work for the Government, and that all the amenities and infrastructure that they needed were to be provided for them. But when they got here they were literally dumped at Gouna (which is situated deep in the forest – even today it takes half an hour or more to drive there from Knysna), and all they received was a Government rations subsidy for the first six months of their stay.

Each family was also allotted about 20 acres of unimproved land – but no tools or any kind of help to get them started.

Only Christie championed their cause. The local magistrate, an apparently imperious individual named Jackson (who is said to have ruled the town mercilessly), and the people of Knysna (including Barrington, who had initiated the plan to bring them here) completely ignored them and their problems.

Christie fought unfailingly and often fanatically on the Italians’  behalf, but after a year he couldn’t stand it any longer, and he eventually returned to England. In 1882 he wrote to the Colonial Secretary, The Earl of Kimberley, and told him the whole story. It was a final attempt, but it had no effect, and the immigrants were on their own.

Eventually (and with great difficulty, as they were a non-English speaking Catholics in an English speaking Protestant colony) those who stayed behind integrated into Knysna’s community, and some of their families are living here still.

Their story was made famous by Dalene Matthee in her novel Moerbeibos (Mulberry Forest).

By the way: a silk industry wasn’t Barrington’s only grand scheme. It seems he also tried (unsuccessfully) to farm with honey, and to start commercial cider production in an area in which apples don’t grow very well at all.

He was also credited with starting the Great Fire of 1869 – although his descendents still dispute this.

From what I’ve read, though, it seems he decided to burn his lands on the 7th of February of that year – after a month of unrelenting drought and heat (February is generally the hottest month in the Garden Route).

The fire is said to have raged quickly out of control, and the devastation it caused was immense. By the 9th it had spread as far as George (about 50 km to the west) and Humansdorp (about 170 km to the east) – where 20 homesteads were gutted, and 27 people lost their lives. Much wildlife and live stock was destroyed, as were many hectares of forest and farmland. Portland itself was burned to the ground, and the harbour town of Knysna was only saved when the wind shifted to the west at the very last moment.

According to some environmentalists, the fire wiped out the grasslands of the region, and this was one of the factors which drove the famous Knysna elephants deep into the forests of the area, where they’ve lived ever since. They remain the only herd of elephants in South Africa that roam free – that is, outside a fenced game reserve – although the area they inhabit does form part of the Garden Route National Park. But it’s an unfenced ‘community’ park.

Barrington eventually rebuilt Portland Manor, and it’s had quite a chequered career: but now it’s a countrified guest house – with a resident late night visitor, of course.

‘Scatalog: a Quick ID Guide to Southern African animal droppings’ – now why didn’t I think of that?

Slightly smaller than DL-sized, and just 40 pages long – and full of it – this must be one of the most useful field guides I’ve seen in a long, long time. Because you do – you see a lot more poop than animals in the bush.

The Scatalog (by Kevin Murray and published by Random House Struik) will help you identify the scats of about 100 species – the most common mammals of the region, some reptiles, and even a few of the larger birds – and it contains a short but fascinating guide to what you can learn from animal droppings.

It’ll definitely be in my pack next time I head on out. And it should be in your guest library, too.

Buy it here.

If you’re struggling with managing reviews about your product on TripAdvisor, you’ve ever entertained a guest, you’ve ever been on holiday, or you’ve ever parked in an airport car park – this one’s for you

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mossel Bay’s Elna Venter has announced that her book on the trees of the area will be published later this month.

‘Trees of the Garden Route – Mossel Bay to Storms River’ is the first book to cover the subject since F. von Breitenbach’s famous ‘Southern Cape Forests and Trees,’ which was published by the then Department of Forestry in 1974.

“The 250 page ‘Trees of the Garden Route’ covers 110 species of indigenous trees, and includes short descriptions of the species, with notes on their use (in the modern day and in the cultural context), and 1,800 full colour photographs of the trees themselves as well as their leaves, stems, flowers, and fruit,” said Ms. Venter.

“The book is aimed at both amateurs and botanists, and is up-to-date with all the latest changes in the various names. But what makes it unique is the visual key we’ve devised which will help anyone to easily and quickly identify any species in the area,” she said

Ms. Venter and her husband, Barry, came to live in Mossel Bay about seven years ago. “At first we chose if for its position: it’s close to the airport and Barry, who is a management consultant, still commutes regularly to Johannesburg.

“It was only after we settled here that we realised the many wonderful advantages of Mossel Bay.”

Ms. Venter calls herself an ‘interested amateur,’ although she’s been working in the botanical field for some time. “Before coming to the Garden Route, I was involved with environmental education for school children at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens – the old Witwatersrand Botanical Gardens – in Roodepoort,” she said.

“But we have a holiday house in Nature’s Valley, and I think that’s where my interest in the trees of the area really sparked.”

‘Trees of the Garden Route’ was printed in Singapore, and the books are presently on board ship. They are expected to arrive in Cape Town during this week.

Mossel Bay Tourism’s Marcia Holm said that the town’s Proud Mossel Bay campaign (which aims to highlight outstanding achievements by local citizens) was proud to salute Ms. Venter and her work.

“The environment of the Garden Route is our biggest tourism asset, and it’s exciting to see a Mossel Bayer once again leading the way when it comes to enriching everyone’s experience of the outdoors,” she said.

‘Trees of the Garden Route – Mossel Bay to Storms River’ will be launched on the 30th of November, 2011.

Copies of the book can be ordered from the author, at a cost of R170,00 plus postage and packaging. Please call +27(0)44 690 7454 or +27(0)83 653 0013, or e-mail even [at] absamail.co.za.

The launch of companion volumes of plays marks World Aids Day

Junkets Publisher is launching its two-volume collection of Southern African plays for performance or performed readings for high schools on World Aids Day, 1 December 2011, at Oude Libertas near Stellenbosch.

While being a celebration of these eagerly-awaited collections of short plays, titled Short, Sharp & Snappy 1 and 2, the launch will also serve to mark World Aids Day in two ways.

First, Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala, a young playwright whose play Faith in Love appears in volume 1 and whose play The Bicycle Thief appears in volume 2, will read a poem of his called ‘Xavier’s Lament’, which recounts the death from Aids-related illness of a young neighbour of his.

The main event of the launch will follow. A group of young actors from New Crossroads and Philippi called The Lost Voices will perform an extract from Monti Jola’s play The New Struggle, which appears in volume 2 of the Short, Sharp & Snappy collections.

The Lost Voices group is comprised of present and recent school students; they achieved success with their presentation of The New Struggle during the Zabalaza Festival at the Baxter Theatre earlier in the year.

‘The point of the play,’ says author Monti Jola, an experienced writer and director of community theatre, ‘is that the political struggle may be over, but we now have to mobilise the youth to fight this new struggle, the scourge of this disease. The plays shows young people coming to terms with these things inside their own schools.’

According to Robin Malan, owner-manager of Junkets Publisher and the co-compiler with Colleen Moroukian of these collections, Monti Jola’s play ‘does this both with great seriousness and with great wit and liveliness – an ideal vehicle to get the message across.’

Of the launch, Malan goes on to say: ‘It makes sense, in the context of the pandemic that is ravaging the lives of so many young people in our country, to temper our celebration with some sober reflection. What Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala and The Lost Voices are saying in their work is that attention must be paid to those who have succumbed to the pandemic, to those who are living with the virus, as well as to those who are living with those who are living with the virus. At the same time, we should be mindful of the work done by those who have found ways of managing the disease and those who are working towards finding a lasting cure.’

The launch is at 5.30 for 6 p.m. on Thursday 1 December 2011 at the Oude Libertas Art Gallery and Auditorium just outside Stellenbosch. People attending are advised to leave early to avoid peak-hour traffic. The two books will be on sale for R140 each, for cash only (no cards).

Because of constraints on the number of seats in the auditorium, it is essential that people who wish to attend first obtain an invitation by emailing info [at] junkets.co.za or calling 076 169 2789. If you wish to order copies of the books @ R140 each, please use the same address or number.

Junkets Publisher acknowledges the assistance of the Arts & Culture Trust in publishing these books; and the generosity of Distell in providing both the venue and the wine for the launch.

www.junkets.co.za

SHORT, SHARP & SNAPPY 1 AND 2: Southern African plays for high schools

Cost: R140 per volume

Order now from info.junkets [at] iafrica.com or contact Robin on +27(0)76 169 2789 or Andi on +27(0)78 763 3177