On two Sabbath afternoons we hiked at Helderberg Nature Reserve, which covers about 400 hectares on the slopes of Helderberg Mountain in Somerset West. Most of the trails are loops, with some portions as wide as a two lane road. We really enjoyed our explorations of the beautiful, uncrowded park!

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Blooms– Colorful protea shrubs and trees are abundant at the nature reserve. Unfortunately the king protea, also called the giant protea and the national flower of South Africa, had finished blooming prior to our April visit. However, several other varieties of proteas were blooming, including protea aurea with the long flowers. The blossoms were not only beautiful, but also attracted the picturesque and happy-sounding Cape sugarbird. Proteas are sometimes called sugarbushes because of the large amount of nectar produced by the blooms. More than any other country, South Africa is associated with proteas and produces more than 330 species of the flower. However, Australia has the largest collection with over 850 protea species.

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Birds– Serious birdwatchers in South Africa are called twitchers. We are not in that category. However, as we spent more and more time in South Africa we became increasingly fond of identifying and photographing the very interesting birds in this country. So our two hikes in the park included frequent stops to make sure we had a good selection of pictures of the birds we didn’t accidentally scare away. 

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Bay Views– The Helderberg Nature Reserve is a 30 minute drive from where we stayed in Gordon’s Bay. On both afternoon hikes we were able to see False Bay and the two towns on either side of it, Gordon’s Bay and Strand.

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