Chapman’s Peak Nature Sanctuary
The cache, a small camo-taped plastic pot, is hidden in this tiny remnant of nationally endangered Cape Flats Dune Strandveld and Southern Coastal Forest (milkwood forest) habitat adjacent to a small restaurant/pub/small business complex in the depths of semi-rural Noordhoek.
To Access the Cache: either a) park at the rear of the complex @ S 34 5.915 E 18 21.836 and cross over the grassy patch with the children’s climbing frame to the start of the path. Follow this through the Sanctuary to the cache location, or
b) park roadside on Oak Avenue @ S 34 6.000 E 18 21.922 near the southern end of the path and head the short distance to the cache location.
The Sanctuary has remarkable plant diversity and a great display of unique flowers throughout the year - especially from September to early October.
Although on provincial land, it is unofficially managed by the Noordhoek Environmental Action Group. A single sand footpath runs south-east through the reserve from the Red Herring kiddies jungle gym. Take care whilst in the Sanctuary to avoid trampling or otherwise damaging any plants – a real habitat threat in such a tiny natural area.
Post your photos of flowers (or any other wildlife of interest you may see) with your log.
Cape Flats Dune Strandveld: is a unique and endangered Strandveld (Afrikaans: ‘beach scrub’) vegetation type endemic to coastal areas around Cape Town. It covers and stabilises sand dunes on the beaches around Cape Town, and is incredibly colourful in spring when it bursts into flower. It supports a very high biomass of browsing animals, and in the past it was grazed by large herds.
The strongly alkaline, calcareous dune sand of the coast lies over a base of older limestone. In some places, this limestone juts out of the dune sand, and forms impressive beach cliffs. Succulents form a high proportion of Strandveld plants, consequently, fires are much less common in Strandveld than in the neighbouring Fynbos vegetation.
Over half of the Cape’s Strandveld has been lost to urbanisation and the building of beach resorts, and only 14% of the remains is actually conserved.
Nature Reserves with this type of habitat include: Blaauwberg Conservation Area, Edith Stephens Wetland Park, Rondevlei Nature Reserve and Wolfgat Nature Reserve
Flora (see Gallery Photos): it typically has areas of tall, evergreen shrubs, with great numbers of bulbs, grasses, succulents and annual flowers growing in between. Historically, dense forests of large Milkwood trees used to exist at Noordhoek, Olifantsbos, Macassar and Gordons Bay.
Plants naturally found in this habitat include shrubs (eg. Chrysanthemoides monilifera, Dune Olive (Olea exasperata), White Bristle Bush (Metalasia muricata), Shooting Star Twin-leaf (Zygophyllum flexuosum), Dune currant rhus (Searsia orRhus laevigata) and Blue Kuni-Rhus (Searsia orRhus glauca); succulents (eg. Sour figs [Carpobrotus acinaciformisand Carpobrotus edulis) and Mesembryanthemumspecies; Restios; herbs (eg. geraniums), many types of daisies (eg. Purple Groundsel (Senecio elegans), Senecio burchellii, Cape Marigold or White African Daisy (Dimorphotheca pluvialis) and endemic plant species like Narrow-Leaf Brightfig (Lampranthus tenuifolius).
Larger indigenous treesinclude: Milkwood (Sideroxylon inerme – see below), Sea or dune guarri (Euclea racemosa), Cape Camphor Bush (Tarchonanthus camphoratus), Candlewood (Pterocelastrus tricuspidatus), Wild olive (Olea europaea subspafricana) and Coastal silkybark (Robsonodendron maritimum)
Southern Coastal Forest:this consists of white milkwood trees (see Sideroxylon inerme inerme), a Southern African coastal tree, with dense foliage, black berries and small, foetid, greenish flowers. Its generic name means ‘iron-wood’ in Greek, referring to its very hard timber.
While not endangered, it is one of South Africa's ‘Protected Trees’ and several specimens are provincial heritage sites. See also GC6Z0RV Into The Milkwoodswhich is hidden some 1km to the north-east, for more info on this distinctive and fascinating tree.