This blog comes from Cape Town, one of the world’s most beautiful cities at the south-western tip of the African continent.
The Cape Peninsula: A short introduction
This blog comes from Cape Town: one of the world’s most beautiful cities at the south-western most tip of the African continent. It is at the heart of the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) which forms one of the most botanically diverse environments on the planet. A lifelong love of plants brought me here for the first time five years ago as a horticultural intern at the world famous Kirstenbosch National Botanic Gardens. I was born in the United Kingdom and grew up in the village of Portesham in the rural Westcountry county of Dorset. A little more than two years ago I decided to make South Africa my home and flew 7,000 miles southwards to the Mother City to begin a Masters Degree in Botany at the University of Cape Town in its stunning location at the foot of Table Mountain.
Cape Town is situated on the rugged and mountainous Cape Peninsula, stretching from the iconic profile of Lions Head, Table Mountain and Devil’s Peak in the north to the Cape of Good Hope in the far south. Table Mountain was voted one of the new Seven Wonders of the natural world.
What makes the Cape Peninsula so special?
The Cape is characterised by a type of vegetation known as fynbos, a Mediterranean climate shrubland that is both fire prone and fire dependent. Fynbos is renowned for its phenomenal plant diversity with a total of more than 9,000 species of vascular plants in an area less than the size of Portugal. The Cape Peninsula has 2,285 plant species and Table Mountain alone has almost 1,500 species in just 57 square kilometres.
Fynbos favourites
Find me on Instagram
Great places to eat & sleep
Plant Information
Connect on Social
Connect on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Taking Action
There are many environmental organisations based in Cape Town and beyond that require the services of volunteers to undertake their work. So if you have a little time to spare please get involved.