Seneca Hill Perennials

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Introduction

I spent a little over two weeks in South Africa this winter (2008), flying out of Dulles on January 29 and arriving at Cape Town on January 30, then leaving Johannesburg on February 16 and coming home to winter in Oswego on February 17.  During this trip I traveled with Cameron McMaster, the seemingly tireless co-owner (with wife Rhoda) of African Bulbs, renowned expert on the Dohne sheep and consultant to sheep farmers all over South Africa, tour guide extraordinaire, and first-rate self-taught botanist, ornithologist and lepidopterist; with John Manning, research scientist at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, author of twelve books and numerous articles and contributions, and accomplished photographer and illustrator; and, for the second half of the trip, Dawie Human, owner of Lifestyle Seeds. Needless to say, this was a humbling and extarordinarily educational experience.

Our itinerary took us from Napier, east of Cape Town, eastward across the Karoo to Somerset East (Glen Avon and the Waainek Nature Preserve).  From there we headed across Hogsback, via Tordoon, to  the McMaster family farm in Cathcart.  We then moved on to Carnarvon Estate near Sterkstroom, staying on the estate at the Stagger Inn and exploring the Andriesberg with estate owners Bertha and Robin Halse.

From the Sterkstroom area we headed to the Maclear district, staying at Woodcliffe, where we explored the magnificent valley, and then hiked Aurora Peak with nature guide Adele Moore to see orchids (and other things, of course). From there we traversed Naude's Nek to Rhodes; our hopes of exploring Naude's Nek were dashed by the large wet clouds which settled onto the peaks for the duration of our visit.  But there is always something to see in the Eastern Cape, even when plans go awry.

From Rhodes we circled up outside the southwestern border of Lesotho to Ladybrand, where we met up with Dawie Human.  We entered Lesotho at Maseru and headed for Semonkong Lodge in the center of the country, where we botanized and marveled at one of the world's truly outstanding waterfalls, Maletsunyane Falls.  We then retraced our wheel tracks to Maseru and headed northward and then south again to Katse Dam, thence back again as far as Ficksburg and up through Clarens to Sterkfontein Dam.  Our last three nights were spent near Sterkfontein, from which we drove to botanize on Sentinel Peak.

My narrative of this trip is a bit quirky, I suppose - sort of a botanical travelog.  The hope is that you, the reader, will come away from this with some sense of what it's like to botanize in the Eastern Cape and Lesotho; and that a few of you, at least, will be inspired to go there and check it out for yourselves.

A final caution: this is a busy time of year, and I have worked both hard and fast to get this travelog up onto the website.  Errors undoubtedly remain; I hope they will gradually be identified and corrected over the coming weeks.  But like life itself, the account will retain some imperfections.

Ellen Hornig