Seneca Hill Perennials

February 12-13, 2008

Didn’t write yesterday because I was beat and bottomed out by the end of the day.  We drove from Semonkong to Katse Dam (1,2) and though much of the day was interesting and enjoyable, the final drive to Katse was more or less a waste of time; we should have turned back after Mafika Lisiu Pass (3090m) and gone back to Ficksburg, which would have brought us nearer today’s destination.  Instead we went ‘way out of the way to Katse, then backtracked the entire distance to Ficksburg today, thence to Clarens and our final destination of Sterkfontein.

Anyhow.  Yesterday’s drive from Semonkong back to Maseru  took us through some urban as well as rural areas of Lesotho, and this was very interesting, because though the land is terribly overused and degraded, and the cities are packed with people, the general sense one gets is that people have their lives to live, everyone in urban areas has some little schtick going, the rural areas are very much subsistence-oriented, and by and large the bitterness, hopelessness and hostility of, say, the Transkei are quite absent.  It helps, of course, that much of the rural area we passed through (between Maseru and Semonkong, then between Maseru and Katse) has ample rainfall, so that maize and vegetable patches, and the runty little peaches to which everyone seems much attached, generally do pretty well, except where soil fertility has been completely lost.  Lesotho is badly overcrowded, but I think it could manage if people knew more about intensive agriculture (a la Chinese).  The problem is that innovation does not seem to be the local style - traditional people, and all that – but in the longer run that will have to change.

East of Semonkong we stopped to photograph some of the massive drifts of Kniphofia caulescens  (1,2) we'd passed by two days earlier, and encountered two locals hauling brush.  Despite the fact that "traditional" conical woven plant fiber hats are sold everywhere, what all the men wear are knitted baclavas.  Further on we spotted some rather unusual eroded peaks, the generic name of which, in Afrikans (courtesy of Dawie) is "tittiesberg" (self-explanatory).

Eventually, after several hours of driving, we climbed into the magnificent mountains to Mafika Lisiu Pass, at 3090m, where we parked and explored for a while.  I found quite a lot of Kniphofia ritualis up there – it’s gotta be hardy – collected some unripe but possibly ripenable seed – saw various high alpines including Alepidea thodei and (perhaps the prettiest of them) Helichrysum basalticum – but it was more of a day for views and sociology than plants.  Dawie and I walked eastward along the road, down from the pass, assuming Cameron and John knew where we'd headed and would follow in the truck and collect us.  Unfortunately, this was a rare moment of miscommunication, and they did not.  After a long wait,  Dawie stopped a vehicle headed uphill, described the party to whom the message should be given, and told them where we were.  Thank goodness, this worked. We were soon collected, and headed on to Katse, where we were assigned a 3BR house for 250R each (no meals included), but it had no electricity…nor did the next one they assigned us…so finally we ended up with 2 2BR “chalets” for the same price, and settled in.  Dinner at the restaurants was OK and not dreadfully pricey, though it had its comical aspects, as the staff was trying to be very attentive and upscale, the result being that the moment you set down your fork or knife or stopped chewing, you were in immediate danger of losing your plate; and then when we went to pay, the woman had to look up the price of each item on her list (based on what Cameron told her we had eaten).  Africa is different. 

So I was flat-out beat by the end of the day, having slept very badly for 2 nights at Semonkong (arthritis in my hips, aggravated by the deep-valley bed and the damp cold), and so I did not write – just chatted a while with John, then crawled into bed and got the first really good night’s sleep I’ve had in a while.

Breakfast at the Katse Lodge was exceedingly overpriced, so we made do with the assorted cookies, Cadbury bars, apples etc that we’ve accumulated, nibbling as we drove all the way back over the preceding day’s route to Ficksburg, thence to Clarens.  En route, we stopped in the mountains on the far side of Mafika Lisiu Pass to check out various plants we'd admired on the way up the day before: Berkheya rosulata (definitely want to try growing this one), Galtonia viridiflora, and Xerophyta viscosa.  The basalt flanks of the mountains towered above us, wet with running water.  A spectacular place (1,2,3).

Clarens is one of those tourist-oriented “charming” towns, filled with artsy-crafty stores and little restaurants, that could be anywhere in the world – but it’s clean, and they have real coffee there, clean bathrooms and clean public phones – so we didn’t mind.  Got lunch, passed my Telkom WorldCall card around to those who needed it, then called home and woke poor Doug up at 6:15 AM.  Was somewhat alarmed by the call – 3 to 4 feet of snow, snow blower broken and off for repairs, and Doug sounded tired and depressed. 

We left Clarens and continued to the Golden Gate National Park, set in the midst of magnificent sandstone formations (that sandstone layer is called Clarens sandstone, also cave sandstone).  Stopped at Golden Gate NP to admire and photograph what we thought were Kniphofia galpinii, but later John and Cameron decided they were just little specimens of K. triangularis subsp. triangularis.  Knips can be amazingly confusing.  Collected some seed of Miscanthus capensis and what looked to be a giant form of Berkheya speciosa (c.3-4 ft high), though the size may just be due to the richness of the soil.  Continued to a place where DH thought there were Gladiolus sericeovillosus – they turned out to be G. elliottii.  Collected a few seeds of that and of some nearby Pelargonium luridum.

And so onward, a truly lovely drive, to Harrismith, where we stopped to shop for supplies for our self-catering unit here at Sterkfontein Dam.  John had planned menus as we drove, so he and I went to the grocery store to get what we needed.  We thought the lodge would have soap and detergent, so didn’t buy any – it did not – fortunately I was able to pull those from my luggage.  My Swiss Army knife also proved instrumental, as there is only one large knife in the kitchen.

That said, it’s a lovely place, on a bluff above Sterkfontein Dam (here they call the reservoir itself a dam; what we’d call the dam is the dam wall), and we will be happy to stay here (1,2).  The reserve has miles of veldt, SA’s answer to prairie, grazed only by the antelopes, and full of flowers and interesting plants.  John and I walked a little before we came back to fix dinner, and nabbed a few seeds of Gladiolus papilio and quite a lot of Pelargonium luridum.

Anyway, it’s a great place to stay, spectacular views across the reservoir, spectacular veldt in other directions, and the next 2 days should be the most exciting of the trip, as we will be botanizing at Sentinel Peak both days, and I am assured that this is as good as it gets.  And now to bed.