| Karoo wildflowers 'best in a decade' |
| Posted by Enviroadmin |
| Monday, 24 May 2010 19:31 |
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August 11 2006 at 09:42AM http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=420&art_id=vn20060810134204812C182010 It's wildflower displays may not be as well-known as those of Namaqualand but the Tankwa Karoo National Park can sometimes produce a natural miracle to rival anything found in its more famous neighbour. And the miracle - which is in full bloom at the moment - is all the more ... well, miraculous this year, because this park has had only half of its already very sparse annual rainfall. The presence of the huge 85 000 hectare park that lies between the Cederberg and Roggeveld mountain ranges, south of Calvinia, has been something of a well-kept secret among local nature-lovers. But the word has got out and visitors have been flocking there for the past three to four weeks. Park manager Conrad Strauss says the wildflower displays are the best in a decade. "They're beautiful! It's not that the rainfall was exceptional, because so far we've had only half of what we should receive annually. "But for the first time since 1996, the rain fell at at the correct time, in May, which is a good thing for us." The park's name, also spelled Tanqua, derives from a Khoekhoen (Khoi) word which is in turn a variant of another word, Sonqua, which is what the Khoekhoen herders called the San, or Bushmen, hunter-gatherers. It derived from the harsh, dry nature of this particular area, which is one of the most arid regions in the Karoo, with the western half of the park getting only 80mm of rain on average a year. Only the rugged San hunters could survive here. "It means 'Place of the San' and it was probably because it was too dry for their (Khoekhoen) herds," explains local place-names expert Peter Slingsby. Despite its extremely harsh climate, which has a teeth-chattering mean July minimum temperature of just 5.7°C and a brain-melting mean January maximum temperature of 38.9°C, the park is, arguably, among the most important in South Africa's national park network when it comes to protecting biodiversity. It falls within the Succulent Karoo biome (an ecological area) that has been recognised as one of just 25 of the world's biological "hotspots" that are international conservation priorities. The vegetation of this area was devastated by unsustainable farming practices during the 19th and 20th centuries as farmers tried to force a living from the land. As recently as 1988, famous botanist John A****s described the Tankwa Karoo as "terribly tramped out, and eroded down to the bare shale". But the creation of the national park, which has plans for substantial further enlargement, has stopped the destruction, and the natural vegetation is slowly recovering - with spectacular wildflower displays when the rains arrive on schedule. The park also offers much more than a rare plant life: it is home to typical Karoo landscapes, animals and insects, and is particularly popular with birders. Birding guide Jappie Classens is one of them, who says that the park protects "one of the most starkly beautiful tracts" of the Tankwa Karoo. "It teems with life and character, from the dramatic landscapes, wide silences, eccentric richness of plant diversity, and the rare and prolific birdlife that exploits this landscape and its relative isolation," he writes on the park's website. "There's the sense that time was born here, and with time, life." On Friday, Strauss and his colleagues are moving into new headquarters in the park that have just been completed. The park is designated as a Scientific National Park, and although not generally open to the public at present, permission to enter can be requested. At present, the only formal overnight accommodation is in the form of two cottages sleeping four and six respectively, and some camping facilities. "We'll probably start next month to develop a wilderness camp that will have five units, each sleeping four people," says Strauss. John Yeld August 11 2006 at 09:42AM http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=420&art_id=vn20060810134204812C182010 |
