August the 11th – Our 7th leg
Today I took my children to Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens at the foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town for some learning, fun and exercise, as this is a massive 528 hectares in area.
a Bonsai tree at the entrance of the gardens
The garden is one of nine National Botanical Gardens covering five of South African's six different biomes, Kirstenbosch was founded in 1913 to preserve the country's unique flora. Furthermore, what makes the Gardens so famous worldwide is that (with minor exceptions), only indigenous plants are cultivated.
It was
declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.
The garden
includes a large conservatory (The Botanical Society Conservatory) exhibiting
plants from a number of different regions, including savanna, fynbos, karoo and
others.
Outdoors, the focus moves to plants native to the Cape region,
highlighted by the spectacular collections of proteas.
Kirstenbosch
enjoys great popularity with residents and visitors. From the gardens several
trails lead off along and up the mountain slopes and these are much used by
walkers and mountaineers.
The Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway is a new curved steel and timber bridge that winds and dips its way through and over the trees of the arboretum. Inspired by a snake skeleton, and informally called the "boomslang" (meaning tree snake), it is a low-impact sculptural raised walkway.
The view from the top of the walkway
This
walkway is 130m long, narrow and slender, with a few wider view-point areas,
and lightly snakes its way through the canopy, in a discreet, almost invisible
way. The walkway is crescent-shaped and takes advantage of the sloping ground;
it touches the forest floor in two places, and raises visitors to 12m above ground.
It is more than just a traditional boardwalk - like a snake, it winds and dips.
We were
lucky enough as this walkway opened in May of 2014.
Kirstenbosch
enjoys a Mediterranean climate, with a long, hot, dry summer (November-March)
and a short, cool, rainy winter (June-August).
As we went in August, the
temperature was great with a beautiful day al round.
The King Protea